


Midnight Rest

by Software_Fishmonger



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Drugs, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Sleep Deprivation, Techno-centric, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 28,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27325447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Software_Fishmonger/pseuds/Software_Fishmonger
Summary: Technoblade was known to work himself endlessly.One day, he zoned out for an hour, the next for longer. Tommy, Wilbur, and Philza started to notice his irregular sleep cycle. They knew it was bad, but it was worsening at a fast rate. During Techno's adventure, something must've happened to him.They have to find out quick before Techno's health really starts to deteriorate.
Comments: 165
Kudos: 945





	1. Techno's return

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing a fanfic because I only just recently gotten into reading some MCYT stories.
> 
> Also exams are coming up, why do I do dis to myself :')

Technoblade finally arrives back at his castle after returning from his month-long adventure. The familiar site relaxed his tense shoulders, that is, until he heard footsteps rapidly approach him. He swung around instinctively as he was still on high alert from his journey.

"TECHNOOOOO!"

Techno's eyes widened to see a blonde child sprinting towards him with open arms. He backed up to side step, but realised it had indeed been quite some time since he saw a familiar face, so instead, he let the small child tackle him to the ground.

"Techno!" The child laughed in excitement. "Hey big man! So what brings you back? Did you miss my alpha male aura? I mean, I don't blame you. Everybody loves being around the great Tommyinnit, and I would too if I were you."

Technoblade snickered at being instantly bombarded with Tommy's loud ramble. He pulled himself off the ground and sat up, resting his chin on the palm of his hands. "Tommy," Techno interrupted. "I'm going to send you back to the orphanage if you don't be quiet."

Tommy gave him his usually shocked look. He was often teased by everyone: his friends, family, and even strangers. The boy took a second before inhaling to raise his volume to protest, but Wilbur walked in behind them just before the blonde could get a chance.

"Eyyy Technoblade!" Wilbur exclaimed with a smile.

"Helllooooo" Techno greeted.

"What a nice surprise. When did you get back?"

Technoblade spread his arms out to indicate the fact that Tommy and himself were both currently on the ground probably meant that he had just gotten back. Wilbur raised his eyebrows and upon realising the gesture, he let out a small chuckle.

"Oh. Well aren't you two having fun." Techno sighed deeply and Tommy gave him an annoyed look. "I'll be back. I'm going to get Philza back from the woods. He's going to be so happy to see you after such a long time. You know what? We're going to celebrate your return. Oh, and Tommy..."

Tommy tilted his head back to look at his older brother. "What?"

"I can't remember if you've finished the essay I set out for you since... I don't know... Last week. I don't suppose you've already handed it in to m-"

Before Wilbur could finish, Tommy scrambled up and started to run towards the stone stairs. "Would you look at the time, Big T? I would play with you right now, but I'm going to be the bigger man and leave you alone." In a few seconds, Tommy was out of site. The two older brothers exchanged an amused look before they parted ways.

. . .

. .

.

The sun sunk below the horizon, darkness spread across the land with only the stars twinkling in the night sky and a lit up palace on the ground below. Techno sat back in his majestic chair on the one end of the table, facing Philza's seat. He leans back and stares at the empty seat while Tommy was running around setting up the dining table. Wilbur had just finished preparing for the feast, and Techno could tell as aromas sneaked its way out of the kitchen door. A sudden thud snapped him towards the direction of the kitchen. There, Wilbur walked in balancing four dishes in both arms. Just as the pink hair settled down from the loud noise, he heard another thud coming from the entrance. After a couple seconds, he saw Philza running into the dining room to greet his old friend. To the brothers, Philza was like a father figure to them, and without question, Techno was very pleased to see him.

"Techno, you're back! Wow, what timing. You had to come back when I'm out and about. Man, it's great to have you back!" Philza walked towards the red cloaked man and pulled him into a hug. Usually people would reciprocate a hug, but not Techno. He was too socially awkward to bring himself to do such an... affectionate act. Philza looked over towards Wilbur and Tommy and tilted his head. "What are you staring at me for? Come on. It's been a while... Group hug!"

Tommy ran and jumped onto the duo while the brunette casually walked towards them, being dragged into the warm embrace. They had been hugging for quite some time, and Techno opened his mouth to complain but decided against it. He let his family have their way this time. After the hug disbanded, the pink hair raised a question that had been bothering for the past two minutes when everyone sat down on their respective seats.

"I appreciate the new music genre you guys are trying to push forward, but I wouldn't mind if you guys opened doors a bit more quietly." Philza chuckled at his buddy's usual sarcasm.

"Hey, I was just excited to see you again." The man in the green hat argued.

"I'm sure Wilbur was very excited to carry the food to the table. Could you imagine the adrenaline in his body when he-" Before he could finish, the brunette cut in.

"Oh, shut up."

All of Techno's teasing made Tommy chime in into the conversation. "You should've seen Wilbur humming back there. God he looked so-"

"Shut up Tommy." Wilbur interrupted again.

"Yeah, shut up Tommy." Techno agreed.

"What they said." Even Philza joined in making fun of the child.

"But you didn't even let me fini-" Tommy started, but was immediately cut off by all three simultaneously saying "Tommy, shut up." This sent the young one flying into rage. Picking up his fork, he elevated himself on his chair to rant about how he was always the one being picked on. The others more or less ignored his tantrum and started to dig in into the feast Wilbur had prepared.

The night went on full of laughter and joy. A warm feeling tingled inside of Techno knowing he could always return to a welcoming home no matter how long nor how far he journeyed. As midnight approached, the warm feeling was replaced by a second of dread. He didn't know what could have caused this, but he didn't really care either. He had to plan for what he would do for the duration of his stay back home. He couldn't sleep anyways after the energy his family had projected onto him. Tomorrow would be a good day, he reassured himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be fair, I never plan anything out. 
> 
> So if it's bad, it's bad.


	2. Keep it a secret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments and kudos. This feels so weird to me. Anyways, enjoy!

Rosy-fingered Dawn peeked over the skyline to greet the traveller who was now observing his potato farm. He had left it untouched and uncared for for four weeks, he was expecting his plants to either sprout or rot, but to his surprise, everything was well maintained. He ran his fingers through the moist soil, and he could confirm that everything was in top shape. A smile slowly crept up his face which he tried to suppress by covering it up with his hand. He was not one to show his emotions, whether it was negative or positive. As Sun Tzu once said, “Conceal, don't feel, don’t let them know” a crucial rule to all skilled warriors. To think anybody would even bother with his silly farm which he made just to rub it in a kid’s face.

He got to work. Harvesting all the potatoes and planting the seeds back. He kept at it until the flowers spreaded its petals to invite the warmth of the sun. He returned to the castle, greeted by his older brother setting the plates down for breakfast. Techno felt a little bad for having his brothers do all the work, hence proposed to fry the eggs but was immediately rejected by Wilbur. The brunette raised a hand.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but there’s a reason why I never ask for your help in the kitchen. The first and last time you stepped into this room, you burnt ramen. Like, how is that even possible? How did you burn it anyways? It was in water!” A sigh escaped from under his breath. “I appreciate the thought, but no.”

Techno cringed from how much his family made fun of his mistake, he was never going to live down that experience. So instead of helping Wilbur out, he made his way to Phil’s bedroom and knocked outside.

“Yes?” Philza yawned.

“Up.” Techno replied and walked off. It was his way of waking up either Wilbur and Philza because they were much easier to deal with. However, it was another story with Tommy. From past experience, Tommy was by far the most difficult to get out of bed.

In front of Tommy’s door he stood. Gently opening the child’s door and sneaked in until he reached the bedside, ripping the soft blanket off of Tommy. The morning air rushed up under the child’s pyjamas which caused the boy to yelp. Before Tommy could even open his eyes to complain to whoever invaded his sweet dreams, Techno scooped the boy up and threw him up into the air.

“Holy shi-” Tommy’s reflex kicked in and his whole body tried to adjust mid air so that he could land on his feet, only to meet the floor with his face. With a groan, the child shot up to stare at his older brother with one eye whilst rubbing his nose. “CAN YOU NOT FOR ONE MORNING?! I can’t even go back to bed now!”

“That’s kinda the point with waking up. If you wish to survive a morning with me here, train for another 100 years.” Techno smirked. The blonde rolled his eyes and stormed down stairs yelling and complaining. With him up, the day officially started for the family.

. . .

. .

.

The pig-lover had made quite a lot of progress despite being his first normal day back from his adventure. He had mined for a half a day in the nearby mines, scammed villagers for emeralds using sticks, and trapped a few more cows inside his pit. He hated wasting his time when he could put it to some use, whether it was destroying a kid at potato farming, or making others jealous of rare materials he acquired. After a long day’s work, he went back to potato farming. It was his way of chilling as it was quite a tedious task consisting of harvesting and replanting.

Half an hour in, he started to feel a little bit sleepy which was rare. No matter how tired or little sleep he had, there was no reason to suddenly be hit with a wave drowsiness. He stuck the hoe into the dirt below him to steady himself. He didn’t have the energy to walk all the way over back into the palace as he was in the middle of his farm, so instead, he placed both of his palms on the end of the wooden handle and rested his forehead on the back of his hand. His eyes fluttered shut and he was out.

When he came back to his senses, he felt something pulling on his hair. He probably needed a haircut, it was getting annoying with hair constantly irritating his neck every now and then. It was the kind of awkward length where it was not long enough for him to tie it up and not short enough for his hair to not be in his face when the wind blew from behind him. Eyes still shut as useless thoughts circulated his mind, he felt a small poke on his cheeks. He let out a small groan and was met with the eyes of Tommy staring back at him.

“Hey Blade!”

“Hey Tommy. Where did you come from?” Techno straightened his back, only to be greeted with an aching pain. It had probably been a while since he hunched over and fell asleep.

“You know.” The child paused and quickly changed the subject. “You looked so weird so I thought maybe I should check up on you. Ah! I should’ve brought Will and Phil along because you looked REALLY funny. How did you even fall asleep while standing?”

“When you get good like me, you’ll be able to do it too.”

“That’s such a stupid skill!” Tommy laughed. “I don’t want to look like an idiot in the middle of nowhere for an hour.”

The pinkette’s eyebrow furrowed. An hour? It certainly didn’t feel that long, though his spine says otherwise. He brushed the uneasy feeling off and shrugged at the blonde’s childish insult.

“All great fighters need photosynthesis, but of course you wouldn’t understand.” The child scoffed at his brother’s comment which made no sense. Techno’s eyes wandered to the direction of the castle and gave the boy’s shoulder a small pat. “I think we should get back, it’s getting late. We don’t want any monsters to visit us any time soon. I don’t even want to think about having to protect you, you cause so much trouble just by opening your mouth.”

“Oh yeah? Well I’m going to tell the bois about you looking like an absolute DORK!” Pink eyebrows furrowed once again. He lowered his voice in a more serious tone, not that many could pick it up since his voice was usually monotone. “Don’t.”

“Huh, why?”

“Just don’t.”

“YOU’RE EMBARRASSED!” The blonde squeaked. Upon seeing an impressed look, he quieted down and raised both of his hands to surrender. “Ok, ok fine. I won’t tell.”

A hand came down on the child’s hair and gave it a ruffle.

“Thanks.”

The disappointed look on Tommy’s face quickly faded away, replaced with a proud smile as he pulled his brother back home. He may have a loud mouth, but he could tell when someone was dead serious. Techno knew this and was very grateful he didn’t even mention the weird scene he saw when they met the other two.

Midnight struck once again and Techno was in his room recounting his journey into a novel. Any form of literature was of interest to him, which contrasted his reputation of a Blood God in battles. After a couple of hours, he blew the flickering candle out and hit the sack. The odd scene from yesterday lingered in his mind. Maybe he was just tired, nothing weird about it. Nothing weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2:20am, let's go bois!
> 
> Gotta be as sleep deprived as Techno to make this story work
> 
> I always post an unedited chapter before going back to fix my story. F for those who read it before it was edited.


	3. The drop

As Technoblade was once again greeted by Dawn knocking on his bedroom window, he leapt outside from the third storey onto the second storey roof. He opened his arms to soak in the morning sun as the chilling air seeped under his skin. It was a great way to wake up and get his noggin turning. He took a seat on the edge of the roof and let his legs dangle. A huge shadow casted behind him while the sun slowly climbed its way above the dancing clouds. Techno’s eyes wandered downwards, zoning out, head empty, until he heard a knock from his room. With a swift push from his right hand, he threw his body upright and dashed across the cobblestone tiles. Just as he leapt to the third storey, his door flew open and a small silhouette had its arm crossed, standing before him.

“Tommy, what did I say about privacy?”

“You... Huh... Wha…?” A confused look was shot towards the man gripping his window sill while the lower half of his body was still trying to steady himself against the wind.

“Morning exercise. You’ve never tried to do pull-ups outside your window the first thing in the morning? What a casual.”

“... I want whatever drug you’re having right now.” The blonde played along to his brother's unusual behaviour. He couldn’t remember if the pinkette was a morning person or not. It made sense that he would get up early to start before anyone else, but at the same time, he had quite the lazy aura whenever they conversed. Tommy continued speaking as Techno tried to get himself over the window. 

“You know how Wilbur gave me this stupid essay to write last week? It’s like he wants me to occupy myself so he doesn’t have to hear my screaming when he compose his music. That’s so stupid. Who doesn’t want to hear a booming alpha voice echo throughout the house? I think he’s scared. Scared of Tommyinnit.”

“Your point?” Techno raised his arm above him to lean onto his door frame, hovering above the child in a dominating position. There was no way the little boy had gone through the trouble to invade his privacy to complain to him about Wilbur, but then again, anything was possible with this chaotic creature.

“Here’s the deal. You write my essay for me and in return...” Blue eyes darted all around to come up with something on the spot. “I… I will...”

The pinkette was unimpressed by the proposition and was about to slam his door shut, but Tommy raised his hand in panic. “I… We can talk about women!”

A chuckle escaped from the man’s lip at the child’s awful attempt at negotiation. “That is the LAMEST trade I’ve ever heard. Scam! Tell you what, I’ll give you some pointers in the form of notes and you help me with my potato farm.”

“All you ever think about is your stupid potatoes.”

“You’re trading brain power for mindless labour, so which will it be?”

Tommy let out an annoyed groan and nodded. He gestured to the other man to follow him to his room. It wasn’t a surprise that Tommy’s room had gotten messier since the other day he woke his brother up, but still, it wasn’t the worst room he had ever encountered. There on the table consisted of scrunched up refills littered everywhere. Techno turned to Tommy on what the oldest wanted him to write about and the reply surprised him.

“He wants you to… Haha! He wants you to write about Homer’s Odyssey? That’s brutal for a baby who can’t even remember the story of Icarus.”

“Who’s Icarus? The bird guy?”

“This is exactly what I mean!” Tommy rolled his eyes at the pinkette’s teasing. He never learnt Classics so how was he supposed to know these old irrelevant stories. Of course to Techno, a person who had interest in the English language would be knowledgeable with anything related to literature.

“I tried ok? He gave me this thicc book and I couldn’t understand anything in it. Might as well be gibberish. Ok here, look...” Tommy grabbed the book that was buried by the mountain of refills, flipping through to the first page. “ ‘Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.’ Who the hell is muse and what the hell is with book one, book two? They could’ve just written chapter one, chapter two. A book within a book made no sense. I’m so done.”

“It’s an Epic.”

“It’s not epic! It’s boring and confusing!”

“No that’s not what I meant. Homer wrote Epics which were long poems typically derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation. And you’re right, books were their way of chapters. In terms of muses, it meant that the storyteller was trying to connect their thoughts to the gods above so that their memories could flow through him which-”

“Ok NERD. I literally understand nothing you say. I’m starting to think potato farming is much more entertaining than hearing you ramble about boring literature.”

“I’m offended, Classics is actually quite important for man-”

“BYE! See you in a bit!” Tommy dashed out, shouting over Techno’s quiet voice so he could deafen anymore of his brother’s ramble. He asked his brother to do the work for him, not lecture him for the whole day. 

As the dust behind Tommy settled down, Techno turned to the uncared for book that was tossed back onto the table. He took a seat and began to clear out the rubbish so that he had space to work with. It was a shame not many people these days had interest in Classics, they were missing out on the interesting stories ancestors had to offer us. He picked a scrunched up paper from the ground to see what Tommy had written and let out a heartful laugh at his younger brother’s genuine attempt to discuss the challenges Odysseus had overcome during his journey.

_A handsome man called Odyssey cheated on his wife, and overcame his obstacles by convincing her that he was playing chess with a cyclops called Nobody. I’m so confused… But I do love women!_

The layout and structure were all wrong, not to mention the contents of the information within the Epic wasn’t entirely correct. Welp, he tried. Techno picked out three main events which would fulfill Wilbur’s question and started to write a short summary about the Cyclops, Calypso, and the Suitors. However, as he was jotting down notes and finding references for Tommy, a familiar wave of nausea took over his mind. He tried to pinch the bridge of his nose to stay awake, but to no avail, the feeling was too overwhelming. He didn’t think he had gotten less sleep than the days he had to pull all nighters to hand in his own assignments back in the day. In an attempt to pull himself off his seat, strength slipped away from his arm, gravity forcing him back onto the wooden chair. His body sunk, left hand dangling in midair as the other rested on his stomach. His head dropped with pink hair drooping down on his face. Everything went dark as his body went limp.

. . . 

. .

.

Back on the potato farm, the sun burnt into the light-skinned blonde as he worked non-stop to farm all the potatoes in the vast field his brother had built. It was unbelievable how big it was and how Wilbur and Philza had to maintain it during Techno’s absence. Never will he ever make fun of them the next time his brother decides to go on an adventure, there was no way he was ever helping with his potato farm ever again. It was harder than it looked.

After working 45 minutes in the fields, he gave up. Technically, he had finished a third of the farm, but Techno would've taken 30 minutes to farm the whole entire area. He chucked the hoe inside the chest and made his way back to the palace.

“Why are you covered in sweat?” Wilbur had noticed the sweat that soaked into Tommy’s iconic red and white shirt. 

“You know, just playing around I guess.”

“I thought I told you that you couldn’t have fun until you finished the assignment.”

“But I’m not obligated to finish it! You’re not my teacher and I don’t go to school. I’m smarter than the other kids anyways.”

“Tommy...” Wilbur’s gaze softened.

“It’s fine. I’m actually trying to finish it but who the heck gives someone Classics out of nowhere. Like Techno said, I don’t even know who Icarus is.”

“Wasn’t he the bird guy?”

“That’s what I said!” Tommy shouted in frustration, ruffling his own damp hair. He stormed back up the stairs and headed towards his room. He was about to rant to Techno again but he quickly held himself back when he saw a limp body resting on his chair.

“Techno?” Tommy asked, but no response. He shrugged, perhaps his brother was just tired from his travels. He walked out of his room to rinse his body of the sweat and mud that stuck to his skin. By the time he redressed and walked back to his room, he found his brother lying there still, no hint of movement. He felt a bit unfair that Techno was slacking on his end of the deal when he was out there under the merciless sun farming. He peered over the broad shoulders and saw organised notes neatly laid out across the table with page numbers and quotes to go along with every summary. He was impressed at his brother’s dedication to help him out, since all he ever usually did was make fun of him.

“You know for someone who is always complaining about others slacking on their job, you have quite the audacity to sleep while I’ve been farming your god forsaken potatoes. You know, I think you should stop potato farming, at this rate, we could probably end world hunger by just giving everyone potatoes.” He looked down at his brother, still unresponsive.

“Hey, you ok?” He gave Techno a slap on the back and his brother shifted out of his chair, falling towards the ground. Tommy’s fast reflexes barely kept Techno from hitting the floor. He didn’t want Wilbur nor Phil to worry, and he certainly couldn’t tell them because Techno would give him an earful when he wakes up, that is if he does. He decided to pull the heavy body across the room to rest the pinkette's back against the side of his bed. Tommy did nothing but sat across his brother and stared at him with worry. Techno was never the kind of character to show such a vulnerable side of him to others, including his family. He rarely ever saw his brother’s sleeping face and he had seen it two days in a row since Techno’s return. Tommy buried his face in his hands, pulling his knees towards his chest. Will Techno be ok?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4:33am 
> 
> This just keeps getting better. I'm supposed to my scholarship essay, but that's fine. It's ok. (I'm really not fine *Stress noises* I love procrastination...Ahhhh :'D)
> 
> I actually take Classics in high school, so when I heard Techno making references of Classics in youtube videos, I was very excited to include some Classics into this writing.


	4. Tutoring Tommy

_What the… My body feels so heavy._ Techno’s eyelids felt as if a brick was weighing down on it. It was painful to open it, he wanted to go back into the soothing darkness once again. What was he doing again? His hand brushed against the fuzzy carpet… _Hm? Carpet? I thought I was sitting on a chair?_ He blinked a few times as he adjusted to the light that shone through the curtain of his eyelashes. There in front of him, something small was balled up, unmoving. His eyes navigated to the window diagonally above him to determine the time and he noticed the sun had moved further from its position the last time he checked. He could feel something growing in his chest making it a bit hard to breath. He let out a small pant before coughing into his shoulders.

“Hm?” Tommy woke up from the broken silence. He had worried himself to sleep after seeing Techno’s state. He lifted his head from his arms to see his brother moving once again. “Techno?”

Dark brown eyes glanced at Tommy with a confused look. “Yes? That’s my name.”

“Oh you...” Tommy wanted to argue with Techno but the relief he had felt when he realised Techno was fine suppressed the complaint he was about to give. Instead he resorted to “What happened?”

The pinkette shrugged. He attempted to pull himself up by using the mattress behind him as support, however, he stood up too quickly which caused his balance to tip towards Tommy. Upon seeing this, Tommy quickly jumped up and pushed Techno back into equilibrium position. He thanked Tommy and walked unsteadily to the wooden chair, peering over to the notes he had abandoned midway this morning. “Wow, my handwriting has never looked more ‘lovely’. I could kiss it.”

“I’m going to tell Phil.” The sarcastic remark was ignored.

“Why?”

“You were out for two hours.”

“Two…?” The familiar feeling arose inside of him again. This time, he could feel loud beating thumps against the walls of his chest. 

“You’re not stopping me. I could be overthinking this and it might be just because you’re tired, but you’ve never been a deep sleeper, so you should’ve responded when I stepped on your ugly face.”

“You what?”

“What?” They both exchanged a confused look. “Anyways, I know you might want to stop me, but it’s better to find out what’s wrong with you before it’s too late.”

A hand clasped around Tommy’s arm and pulled him back just when he was about to walk away. The blonde turned around to meet a nervous Techno. “You’re right.”

A grin appeared on Tommy and tried to brush his brother’s hand to inform Phil, but was tugged back again. “I AM going to stop you. Look, it’s probably nothing. Maybe I was trying to catch up on the sleep I lost over the years. You know, these things happen.”

“But to you?”

“There’s a beginning to everything.” He ruffled Tommy’s soft hair. “Trust me, I’m ok. Technoblade never dies. Just keep this between ourselves. I’ll go get a drink and then I’ll finish your Odyssey thing in a bit ok? You’ll be fine.”

Tommy watched Techno’s back gradually shrink into the distance. He was completely unconvinced with his brother’s little speech. Flopping down on his bed, he let out a frustrated groan as he pulled on his hair whilst kickboxing the air.

Wilbur greeted the man walking down the stairs as he drank his morning tea. They had a quick chat about the traveller’s whereabouts and it turned out he had gone pretty far. During the thunderous storm, he had sailed across the vast ocean with raging waves pushing the boat mercilessly. Dominating that terrain, Techno encountered the infamous water zombie species called Drowned. He went on a tangent to roast how ridiculous the name sounded. Wilbur responded to this with a loud laugh accompanied by claps. Continuing his story as he sipped on freshly brewed coffee, he briefly mentioned a jungle village and how unsettling the inhabitants there were. There were a few people who were kind enough to tour him around, but most were pretty hostile towards the stranger. It wasn’t often they would see visitors around their area, so their cautiousness was understandable.

“What did you achieve there?”

“I got to bully some innocent people and loot their stuff. Not bad, I got a mending book out of it. But in my defence! They attacked me first. So technically, I was the real victim here.” Wilbur slapped Techno’s arm playfully which nearly caused the coffee to spill on the counter.

“Anyways, back to the Drowned, I’m getting their trident next time. Bruuuhhhhh... you can fly in thunderstorms! Imagine not being able to fly am I right? What peasants.”

“Woooow! I can’t believe you would do this to me.”

“Do what to you? Are you calling yourself a peasant? Welp, time to disown you.”

“Woah hey! What the heck? Says you in your… your silly pig mascot.”

“What’s wrong with pigs? They’re my people.”

“They’re breakfast.” The brunette gave a lopsided smirk. Techno shot Wilbur an offended look and walked away after setting his mug in the sink. 

Tommy was still on his bed, twisting and turning, getting really bored with nothing to do. Suddenly, he heard his door crack open and threw his pillow towards the sound with a yelp. The pinkette skilfully caught the flying object with one hand and tossed it back onto the bed besides the child.

“Knock!” Techno rolled his eyes and knocked the door with his knuckles defeatedly.

“Happy?”

“A bit late for that.”

“Look, do you want to finish your essay or not?” Tommy groaned again and rolled off his mattress to join his brother by his desk. He flung his arms over Techno’s shoulders, resting his head above his soft, cotton-coloured hair. Silently, he watched the older man patiently explain each section and techniques he could use to improve his writing. He got questioned whether he knew how an essay was structured, the feeling of his head swaying side by side was self-explanatory. Techno brought his elbow on the table and pinched the bridge of his nose. Sighing heavily. Without complaint, he set Tommy next to him and basically taught him the basics of English and the stuff he would’ve learnt in school.

The reason Tommy never had a chance to experience school was because the children there had to have approval from their parents with a proper background. The problem was that he didn’t have any parents, and none of his brothers nor Philza could take that place, hence his entrance would’ve been denied. It was deemed unfitting in their society to not have a proper family, but it mattered not to the 16 year old child as he felt that the current people who he lived with was more than enough to be considered a family. So as a substitute for school, Wilbur and Philza had taken turns trying to educate Tommy everything they knew, but they weren’t the best teachers as they didn’t specialise in teaching. The only person who could get Tommy to focus was Technoblade as he was an absolute try hard in everything he did. Whether it was studying or fighting, Techno was at the top. Whenever someone would call Techno out for feeling as if he was better than everyone else, he would deny the accusation and rebut with saying how everyone around him were just idiots. Tommy loved Techno’s attitude and his passion for teaching was just what the child needed, despite sounding very monotone.

After spending an hour or two, Techno leaned back in his chair to stretch his arms. At this point, Tommy was fully engrossed in the Odyssey. Sure it was difficult to read, but the content was actually pretty interesting. A small smile spread across Techno’s face, disappearing when Tommy lifted his head to look at his tutor.

“ So let me get this right... the ‘wine dark sea’ is an epithet which was commonly used by poets even though it makes absolutely no sense.”

“Ah… I wouldn’t put it that way, but yeah. Pretty much.”

Tommy stared back down at his novel for a few seconds and in a small, hesitant voice asked, “C-Could you give me lessons every day?”

“Every da- Every day?! Tommy, I don’t get paid for this nonsense. Who do you think I am, a saint? Noooo, I’m not doing that. Get Phil or Will to teach you, I’ve got better things to do.”

“You obviously do a better job.”

“Maybe they could do their jobs properly if you stopped running away from your problems.”

“Says you.” Tommy muttered, but Techno picked it up.

“What did I do?”

“Could you at least teach me a bit longer tonight?”

“What do I get out of it?”

“Stress.”

“Fantastic.”

. . . 

. . 

.

After guiding Tommy through his essay for another hour, it had finally been accomplished. It was the first time Techno has ever seen anyone’s eyes sparkle with delight towards any education related topic. He doesn’t remember the last time he had fun with someone else regarding literacy. Everybody preferred fighting, it was always the same, but on the bright side, he gets paid a good sum of money during tournaments. Speaking of tournaments, there's one in about 5 days so he could probably use the extra training with someone.

A yawn snapped Techno out of his thoughts and his attention was now directed at Tommy. He glanced at the time and it was getting pretty late. “You should probably go to sleep, it’s past your bedtime.”

“You’re treating me like a kid.”

“Am I supposed to correct myself?” Just as Techno was about to get up, he felt his cloak being pulled in the opposite direction. Tommy was pinching on the end of it with a flushed expression.

“C-Could you read me a bedtime story?”

“Mmmm… And who was the child again?”

“Shut up! You’re not here half the time. You could at least do this much.” It was rather shocking to see Tommy cling onto him, anyone really. He was more of a free-spirit who never looked like they held any attachments to materials nor people, besides discs and possibly his ‘family’. Techno sat back down and gestured to Tommy to get in bed as he dimmed the lights.

“Book 5, Circe...”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. We JUST had an entire day of Classics.”

“You get what you got so stop complaining.”

It didn’t take long for the child to doze off because the language was basically Greek to him even though it was translated. Seeing the peaceful look on the blonde’s face, the bigger man slowly got up and headed to Wilbur’s room instead of his own. He was kind of jealous of how everyone else could fall asleep so easily, but sleep never stopped him from accomplishing anything he was set out to do.

A gentle knock disturbed Wilbur's lullaby, but nevertheless, he invited whoever he had the pleasure to host in this humble room of his. It was unusual to see anyone other than Tommy bugging him outside his door every night. 

“How can I help you?” Wilbur set his guitar to one side as he crossed his legs, patting on the couch across from his bed to gesture Techno to sit. However, the pinkette raised his hand to politely decline the offer.

“I was wondering if you knew anyone who could do some inventions on the spot.”

The brunette scratched his long curly fringe at the odd question. “Hm… Oh! I think a person moved in around here a few weeks ago who specialises in making gadgets. He’s quite handy, the man can make anything he wants. I finally have a tuner thanks to him, it was dreadful not knowing whether my instrument was tuned or not.”

“Who and where is it?”

“He owns a cute lil fox, that lil crayon lil boy. Ahm...It’s not far from here, you can find it on the edge of the town which is closer to us.” They lived in a pretty isolated plain, but they had easy access to the forest, mines, and a bustling small town. It was a very convenient location to have settled in. “His name is Fundy. Go say hi to Fungi for me.”

“Who’s Fungi?”

“The fox.”

“They sound exactly the same, Fundy and Fungi. Very creative. You think his shop’s opened now?”

“I highly doubt it, but you could try.” Techno thought about it and decided to pay Fundy a visit. Even if it wasn’t opened right now, he could probably get there faster tomorrow morning once its location was pinpointed. He thanked Wilbur for the help and made his way out of the palace. It was only after a while it hit Wilbur. Why did Techno want to find Fundy in the middle of the night? But then again, he stopped questioning his younger brother’s odd actions at one point, there wasn’t much point in asking and there was a high chance Techno wasn’t going to give a straight answer anyways. He strummed for another 20 minutes before going to bed. All the lights in the castle were now out, except for a wandering flickering torch, heading further away from its nest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11:47pm
> 
> This took me an entire day to write and I've come to the conclusion that I can only write during night time or when I'm sleep deprived. To be fair, this is the longest chapter I have written thus far. 
> 
> Oh my god, I just realised I have to edit this. Spare me please.
> 
> I need to start reading books. My writing knowledge is incredibly limited, I feel like I'm repeating the same words and phrases over and over again. Feels bad.


	5. Order

It was early morning with the moon still hung high up above the sky. The sun slowly waited for the silver light to dip so it could emerge from its long awaited slumber. The town was mostly dark with a few lights sprinkled here and there, and among the few little shops that were still shining dimly under the night sky, a man with a black leather jacket was busy sorting through his boxes, unpacking whatever left that still needed to be organised. It was a nice little town, resembling the place where he grew up from. Lively during festivities, quiet during the early and late hours. The people here were very welcoming, but contrary to the friendly impression of the civilians here, it was common tradition to hold a tournament once every six months. Usually, it would last for the span of six days where the first three were dedicated to participants who wanted laid back fights, and the last three reserved for the competitive. The winner of the non-competitive tournament could get anything they wanted in the limited budget they were given, and the winner of the competitive tournament would get $10,000. In the end, this was all fun and games. 

The shopkeeper had a bit of knowledge of the people and the surroundings of this little place. He had a few connections which made settling in easier, but that wasn’t all. He has also heard about the infamous family that overlooked this area not too far away. Not many visited the family, but the family had often visited the town. The eldest, Philza, was a people person and would often help others out whether it was helping them with their work or looking after pets. Not a single person has spoken ill of him, and many have invited him to their homes, showing their gratitude. The second oldest, Wilbur, would strum his guitar on the huge plaza, blessing the locals with his new music that he had composed. All the young girls swooned around him, not only because of his musical skills, but also because of good looks. Not gonna lie, he do be looking hot in a yellow turtleneck. Not everyone had a good relationship with Wilbur, after all, would anyone be when their girl dumps them for a guy they’ve never talked to? The third oldest, Technoblade, was the most well-known of them all. His name struck fear in his enemies everywhere he travelled. The only time the locals ever really see him is during the tournaments or selling potatoes and scamming sticks for emeralds. Though the townspeople didn’t know him as well, they were proud to be home to one of the greatest fighters of all time, the home of the “Blood God”. Last but not least, Tommy-the-brat-innit. At first sight, he’s just an annoying and loud child with no manners, but the longer and more patient you were with him, the more he rubbed off on you. Before you know it, he became a pleasure to be around. He would often accompany Phil and Will, but mainly Philza. He would make the most of his time mingling with the crowd. Making connections and ruining people’s day, it was great. At the end of the day, people loved him for being the honest little brat he was and nobody complained until Tommy was out of sight. 

Out of the corner of the shopkeeper’s eye, he saw a silhouette come rocking up to his front door. Putting on his brown gloves, he invited the stranger with a big sly smile on his face, like a cheeky lil’ fox. “How may I help you sir?” He spoke with a noticeable dutch accent.

Out of the shadows, an absolute unit of a man stood before him with a red, fluffy cape draped from his shoulders. His clothing underneath looked as though it was inspired by a casual medieval style. The pupils of the man’s lazy eye darted around for a moment before settling on the smiley seller who was rubbing his hands together as if he was up to no good, but that was just his default response to greeting his customers. “Are you Fundy?”

“Yep, that’s me! What brings you here to my humble shop at this early hour?” Fundy was surprised that strangers knew of his newly opened shop, much less his name for that matter.

The pink hair tapped his finger on his chin and looked around a bit more to get a better picture of his surroundings. “You don’t really have much here except for boxes. How much for one?”

Fundy was taken aback by this odd man’s request. “Surely you’re joking dear customer. These are not for sale, unless of course, you insist. I wouldn’t want to stop you in your tracks.” The customer chuckled at his response. “Yeah no, I’ve only recently settled into this town, so there’s still some unpacking that needs to be done.”

“That would explain it.” There was a long awkward silence until the taller man spoke again. “I was wondering if you could make something for me.”

“Oh gladly! What would you like? I can make you a lightsaber, a map which plays you Treasure Island, or even a diamond ring for your lovely girlfriend if you have one.”

“Oh ho ho, a girlfriend? No, I am very much alone.” The orange hair wheezed at the natural delivery of that phrase. “This sounds a bit strange, but do you have anything that could shock a man awake?”

“Are you perhaps talking about a shock collar?”

“No, no. Something more practical and a bit less...” The man trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence, but Fundy did the job nonetheless.

“Kinky?”

“You said it, not me.” They shared a small laugh. Fundy took a few seconds to think about it and an idea popped into his head. “Actually, I could modify this metallic glove that I had made for one of my customers before they decided to cancel on me. Oh, oh, oh! You know what I can do? I could use these small wires and padding to transmit a vibration very similar to an electrical sensation. These signals will travel through your nerves and it won’t be as damaging as real electricity itself. I could redesign it to suit someone of your… caliber? I don’t know if that’s the right word for it, English is so annoying sometimes. I could also plug in a setting for how much you want to shock the user, and an emergency button to shut it off. But it has to be somewhere easy, but not too easy to access. Oh sorry, did I lose you?”

“No, no, you’re fine. I’m following.”

Fundy raised his eyebrow to show how impressed he was. “That’s new, not many can follow my ramblings, it usually bores them and they end up tuning out.”

“What can you do? Not many of them are educated, this really says a lot about our society. It wasn’t too bad to follow, I have experienced worse in the past day trying to teach a small child about Classics.”

“Oh, Classics! I don’t really know much about it. I think the only story I know is the bird guy called Eye-carus?”

“You’re serious? Please don’t tell me you’re serious. Why does literally everyone know Icarus as the bird guy?”

“To be fair, I’m not a scholar, I’m an inventor and a programmer. I don’t associate myself with historical nonsense, more of a technology kinda guy if ya know what I mean.”

“There’s not much to mean behind those words.”

“Hm… ok. When would you like this to be done?” Fundy had a slight suspicion that the man was a bit socially awkward, but perhaps if he got to know him a little more, their exchange of dialogue could get a lot more interesting from here.

“Preferably by sun down, but that’s a bit much to ask. What do you think about tomorrow?”

The smaller man’s mouth fell open in response to the shocking demand of how little time he had to work with. “Yeah yeah yeah, you ARE asking for a bit much of little ol’ me. What can you offer in return for my service?”

Without hesitation, a pouch was dropped onto the counter that separated them. Fundy cautiously opened it and saw something that caught his eye. His lips curved into a sly smile. “You know how to make a businessman’s day, even though it hasn’t even started.”

“What can I say? I’ll have you know I’m a businessman myself.”

Fundy dropped his elbows on the working bench before him, with his head down between his arms. After giving it some thought, he let his hand slide across his cheeks. “I’m going to have to close my shop for two days...” He mumbled.

“Pleasure doing business with you. Hope you’ll let me see your fox next time.” He gave a satisfactory smile and proceeded to exit out of this compacted building.

“Before you go...” Fundy blurted. “You never gave me your name.”

A hand rested on the door frame, and with a swift turn of his head, he replied, “Technoblade.”

. . . 

. . 

.

The light bounced off of the pearl white task of the hairy predator who was soon to become prey for the two huntsmen. In the stilled air of the forest, the boar stood there gnawing on grass and the remnants of a small, freshly wounded mammal. A small snap of the twig alerted the tasked creature. Backing away from the lifeless body, it saw a shadow dash between trees and before it could react, an axe came down upon its neck, severing its life line. A quick and painless death. It was Phil’s style of hunting. He wished a fast death upon his prey, including his worst enemies. It was far too cruel for him to hunt like Techno, always straightforward, making his enemies known that it was him who puts an end to their miserable lives. Philza picked up the axe and swung it over his shoulder, with only a small amount of glittering blood smeared across the diamond blade. This would be the fourth boar of the day, securing food that would last them for a decent time before they had to go out hunting again. Techno huffed from behind, with three boars tied to a rope being dragged across the leafy ground.

Phil gave a thumbs up, signalling them to head back to the castle. They had been out for a good couple of hours searching and hunting for their meal. It was always a pleasure to bring Techno along as he was the only person who was not only capable, but also willing to bask in this experience with him.

“Phil, you know how the tournament is coming up?” Techno initiated the conversation on their slow walk back. The older shared the load of dragging half of the supply back to their base which was a relief to the other, as it would’ve meant he had to exhaust more energy than needed.

“Oh! I nearly forgot about that! Was that the only reason you came back?” Techno gave Phil a small playful nudge.

“Partially.”

“Ouch.” They both let out a hearty chuckle. Techno continued, “Do you have time later today to fight with me? I know Wilbur is probably busy considering he has locked himself in his room most of the day, and Tommy… well… It would turn into more of a lesson than a practice session.”

Phil quickly ran his schedule through his head and nodded. “Yeah man, I got time later today. I’ll be more than happy to fight with you. Just letting you know, this old man’s gotten a little rusty with you away. Time to get myself back into shape.”

Techno nodded in response. Though Phil wasn’t the best pvper out there, his experience in battles was something that made him a worthy opponent to the titled Blood God. A lot of sneaky little tricks were taught by this man who strode besides him. He rarely used them, but it was always useful when he got himself into a pinch.

After setting their food source and equipment down in the storage, Phil quickly changed into a more mobile outfit and visited Techno who was twirling the hilt of his sword around the palm of his hand on the court. As he moved closer, Techno looked up to see Phil with a fishing rod strapped on his belt.

“Ah.” Articulated. Techno pointed the sword at Phil’s belt. “That’s my thing.”

Phil gave him an amused look, placing his hands on his hip. “No Techno. Just because I can wield a weapon doesn’t mean that I’m ripping someone off. I just thought I would try this out. Seems pretty interesting.”

The wind started picking up. They stood their mark with Phil counting down. 

“3… 2… 1… Go!”

The blonde launched forward, but Techno just stood there, unbuckling his red cape from behind him which trailed away in the wind’s current. Phil smiled, Techno was being very extra trying to look like a protagonist. The pink hair too pushed himself forward, accelerating towards Phil with great momentum. However, Phil suddenly stopped in his track to swing his fishing rod from below, hoping to tangle his opponent’s ankle and pull him in. Noticing the thin line approaching him, Techno jumped off the leg furthest to the string and leaped off the ground, spinning his body vertically in the air. He took out his bow to aim down midair at Phil, but the blonde was quicker to adapt to the situation and had already swung his rod in the other direction, gripping techno’s waist with the line and pulling him downwards towards the concrete ground. Techno mentally took note that he had to come up with a strategy when he was in the air so that he was less vulnerable. His body slammed onto the ground, but quickly recovered to circle behind Phil to take a swing from the back. However, his sword was met with an empty space as Phil ducked down to land a kick on the pink hair. Techno responded to this by arching back.

The exchange lasted a while before Phil ripped Techno’s sword from his hand and pulled him in closer to the blond. “When did you get so good at the fishing rod?” Techno pouted in such a subtle manner, that no one would be able to pick it up. He was a bit salty because he took some time to get used to the mechanics of the simple yet hard to control fishing rod, yet Phil handled it with such ease.

“Just now.” Phil shrugged. He looked down on the disappointed Blade and ruffled his tied back hair. “Another round?” Techno nodded as he tried to untangle himself from the web of strings.

This round was much longer as both men have warmed up, both more agile and calculating than before. Techno was caught too off guard with the other’s skills with the hook, mistakes won’t be made the second time through. Sure enough, he was able to see Phil’s move a lot more clearer now. The blonde’s skills were obviously not as polished as the pinkette’s, but it was still dangerous if Techno misstepped for even a split second. 

At the end of the round, Phil was met with a cold stone sword touching ever so gently at his neck. Nervously smiling at Techno’s sweaty face. He could hear the pants which Techno was trying to suppress. Now that he took a closer look, the man was slightly paler than two days ago. Maybe it was the lighting.

“Should we call this a tie?” Phil asked. A loud sigh escaped Techno’s lips and he drew his sword back.

“Are you testing me? Who do you think I am? No way, one more round to determine who is better.”

“It’s not a competition, Techno.” Phil said as he rubbed his eyes with his index finger. “Ok, one more.”

The final round was more intense than the last. Phil started to experiment on the spot to throw Techno off, since it had worked quite well the first round. He swung his fishing rod at Techno which missed him, but little did the fighter know, the hook looped around him, tugging on his back, tripping up in steps. As Phil pulled Techno closer, he kicked him in the chest, causing the other to stumble back, coughing with a hand grasping his chest for air. As Phil swooped him to knock the sword away, Techno swept his legs from below, causing Phil to stumble and fall onto the ground. Phil shuts his eyes expecting the younger to loom over him with a sword to his neck again, but he felt no movement in the air. He slowly opened one of his eyes which confirmed his theory. All he could see were the clouds drifting across the blue globe. He pushed himself up to see Techno in the same spot clutching his stomach, wheezing. Phil quickly rushed to his side, rubbing Techno’s hunched back.

“Woah there, you ok mate? What’s wrong? Was that a bit too much for you?” His voice was soft, laced with worry. A little kick never knocked Techno down, so what happened? A whisper barely caught Phil’s ears and he leaned closer to hear what the young one was muttering.

“I… I… can’t… breathe… Phi...” His chest tightened, embraced by the familiar darkness once again. The grip on his sword loosened and his body dropped into Phil’s arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent more time writing this chapter and I'm happy. I wrote it on two different days but by god, the editing process took way longer than expected... just look at my paragraphs! I'm procrastinating studying by writing fanfics, and I'm still procrastinating. Why... XD
> 
> I literally sat here for 5 hours today just because I didn't want to edit this.
> 
> Also, how the heck does the word count keep growing, this was supposed to be short, now it's a full story time.
> 
> You're welcome the people who read chapters within the first 24 hours of release. This is the first time I have edited my story beforehand. Thank you so much for reading, I feel the love :)
> 
> Edit: Omg, I forgot to fill in the gaps for Fundy's line XD Why did no one in the comments mention this to me... AHHHH, ok I have added it in.


	6. Interrogation

“TECHNO! WAKE UP!” Flustered by the unconscious man in his arms, Philza threw the body over him in haste. His mind was racing and the world was shaking as his eyes kept darting around. Luckily, his fatherly instincts took over and the next thing he knew, he was running into the castle. No one was present as Wilbur took a trip into town accompanied by Tommy for a musical experiment. Phil couldn’t tell if this was a good sign or not. On one hand, he wouldn’t have to deal with questions bombarded at him, but he wanted to consult with the others as well. Maybe there were some hints that lead up to Techno’s current state.

Up the stairs he went, carrying what felt like a bag of potatoes with a hand on its hip and the other on the back to ensure he didn’t yeet Techno off his back. Tommy would have gladly done just that if he had enough strength to carry a full grown man with ease, that would have been funny.

The door to Techno’s room swung open, slamming the door into the wall with a loud bam. The sound even startled Philza himself. He needed a new way to get to open doors because of this habit of his, people’s properties have actually been broken. He never had a chance to fix it as people resorted to opening doors for him instead to prevent further destruction. Even Tommy had started following in his footsteps and as time goes by, cracks will soon emerge from the weaker parts of these interior walls. 

After gently laying Techno on his bed and tucking him in, Phil took a good look at his surroundings. It was rather messy despite the room being occupied for only a few days. A brown suitcase was left opened with clothing littered carelessly in a corner, a pair of glasses barely hung onto the edge of the high shelves, and books scattered from under his bed all the way up to his desk. He wasn’t that surprised by the state of this place, but you’d think the award for the most chaotic room would go to Tommy, but oddly enough, the child was the second neatest of the four, betrayed by his accumulating soda cans in his basket bin.

Nothing seemed to be off, other than being a tad bit more unorganised than usual. If Phil was honest, if it wasn’t for his constant nagging, Wilbur’s room would be twice, no thrice as worse than Techno’s. The amount of manuscripts and instruments misplaced was a headache to even think about.

Brushing pink strands of hair to the side, Phil’s emerald green eyes gazed through the glass panel from the high tower. Something red caught his eyes as it danced to the whistling howl of the wind. Squinting his eyes, he leaned closer to make out what it was and it turned out to be Techno’s cape. Facepalming, he ran back outside to retrieve the forgotten item. There was no way he was going to buy another dozen for Techno. If Phil could pile up the amount of capes that were lost or damaged, the whole castle would be full.

. . .

. .

.

As if being forcibly pulled out from an abyss, Techno sprung up from bed to gasp for air. His chest was inflating and deflating at rapid succession, sweat dampening his messy hair, his mind trailing miles behind him. Everything was very blurry to him as his eyes had yet to adjust to his surroundings. There was something odd about the saturation of his room, it was a bit darker than he had remembered prior to collapsing. He took a hesitant peak outside his window and sure enough, the sun has moved quite a lot along the sky. His breath started to quicken as he realised he had just lost a significant amount of time not doing anything when he could have been doing something. Anything. Mining, going to the Nether, finally cleaning up his god forsaken room for once. It hadn’t even occurred to him that he had just gone from being outside on the court to sitting on his firm mattress. His heart was thumping against the walls of his chest like a pinball getting smacked across the whole screen. He felt his whole body pulse periodically faster and faster by the passing second. He had to do something or this dread will overtake his mind and only Satan knows what’ll happen.

_ Click. _

“Techno?” A shaky voice echoed distantly from the entrance to his room, but his vision couldn’t focus so he decided not to look up to see who the trespasser was, covering his mouth to try and stabilise himself first. A fuzzy feeling swept over his mind as if it had travelled to another dimension, leaving the hollow shell of a body to try and cope with the uneasy feeling plaguing his weak yet rapid beating heart.

Upon hearing the abnormal breathing from the younger man, he rushed to Techno’s side to try to soothe him by rubbing against his back, speaking in a calm manner. “Take a deep breath Techno. Follow me. Breath in 2… 3… 4… Hold 2… 3… 4… Out 2… 3… 4…” After doing so several times, Techno’s breathing gradually slowed down to a normal pace.

“We don’t talk about this.” The younger murmured in shame. He felt cringe letting others see his pathetic state and he shudders just recalling the past couple of minutes.

“Which part?”

“What do you mean which part, I meant… oh.” It finally hit him that he had also blacked out during the fight. “Uh… all of it? Ha ha…”

Philza sat back on his chair with his arm crossed, staring utterly displeased with the response he received. It has been years since he saw Techno having a panic attack. The last time he had was when a Techno took a short nap which ended up lasting from noon to sunset. These attacks weren’t severe, but he knew how much Techno hated wasting valuable time when he could’ve put it into good use. Even if Techno decided to do nothing all day or end up spending hours of time wandering around aimlessly, it was still better knowing he was conscious and in control of how he wanted to use his time.

“Uh uh. I don’t want to hear this nonsense from you. You look McHecking terrible and you know better than that. By the way, I got your cape so we don’t have to buy another one for the hundredth time.”

“Oh um, thank you. How long was I out for?”

“I think it was… around about four hours. Yeah, Four.”

There was an awkward silence before Phil repeated his question again in case Techno was trying to avoid the question.

“Phil, I’m just as clueless as you. I’ve been falling here, there, and everywhere. I think I might just be tired.”

“Uh huh. You want me to believe that?” Phil raised his eyebrows giving the look of a parent detecting bullsh… detecting a lie.

“Ok fine. The latter was untrue, but seriously, I have no idea either! I didn’t think it was a problem until right now.”

“Hm… I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now-”

“Please give.”

“Please-?” The older man bursted out laughing even though this wasn’t the appropriate situation to be doing so, but he was just caught so off guard by that response. After wiping his tears from his eyes to recollect his composure, he continued. “I don’t care what you’re going to say to me, I’m going to ask the others. At least one of them has to have a clue with what’s going on, or at least give me more information because knowing you, you don’t want me to worry.”

“Me? Hide things from you? I would never.” He smiled sarcastically which prompted Phil to shake his head in disappointment. “Look, it’s fine, I’ll figure it out one way or the other. You don’t have to worry about me. At the very least, please don’t tell anyone what happened today, I just don’t think I can face them afterwards.”

“Techno, you are literally the one person I worry about most.” Before he could continue, loud chatters could be heard crawling up the stairs until a blonde floof poked through the exposed doorway.

“Hey big man, you sleeping?” Tommy slammed the door against the wall despite having it already opened. Wilbur followed Tommy not far behind, pinching the bridge of his nose accompanied with a shake of his head.

“Tommy, for heaven’s sake. The door was already opened. We don’t need two people trying to dismantle the only two things that give people privacy. Walls and doors.” Philza nervously gulps at the snark comment that was clearly aimed directly at him. God was he embarrassed. Even Wilbur was calling him out.

“So you two gremlins, I have a question for you.” Trying to change the topic with a cough. The two boys both hummed in response. “Have you seen Techno be unusual lately?”

Wilbur answered without a moment of hesitation. “Yeah, he’s been helping Tommy with his work. Dreadful. I thought he hated orphans.” Wilbur successfully earned himself a punch from the shorter boy for that remark.

“That wasn’t… Ok, what about you Tommy?” Phil turned his head, turning and extending palms out to gesture the child to speak.

Tommy spared a quick glance towards Techno, but he wasn’t even paying attention to the situation. It looked as if he was lost in his own thoughts and boy did Tommy want to punch his brother for making Phil put him on the spot. He opened his mouth to speak up about the past two days which had been burdening him at the back of his mind but decided against it for he didn’t want to betray the trust of the person he greatly admired. Instead of answering the question, he shifted his gaze from Phil to the man in bed with a zoned out look on his face. 

“Look me in the eyes, Blade. Tell me you don’t have a woman trying to seduce your ugly pig face. Truth be told, I think more women should surround me and admire what big muscles I have and how manly I am. I am oh so manly. I have a gun.”

“You don’t have any of those.” Techno responded automatically without thinking.

Phil tilted his head back and sighed in defeat. His hat falling on his face as he stayed there for a brief second. He was getting nowhere. All he can do is to ensure the safety of his child and make him behave himself until the matter is resolved.

“You're not leaving your room tomorrow Techno.” With that, the pink hair snapped out of his detective maze work that had taken place in his head and objected.

“Wait, you’re grounding me? Phil, I’m not a child anymore. I’m 21!”

“Well, you sure are acting like a 5 year old to me.” Tommy hysterically laughed from behind Phil.

“Technoblade’s a 5 year old! You’re more immature than me! Oh look at me, I’m Techno and I’m better than Tommy because I’m an English major.”

“Tommy, you’re an infant.” Wilbur snorted, making Tommy scoff.

The banter between his two brothers gave him time to think about Phil’s request. Well, not really a request but let’s be real, there was no one who could actually stop him if he decided to slip out and he could tell that Phil was reading his mind due to the look he was getting. If his theory was correct, every hour after midnight that he doesn’t sleep meant that that was the amount he had to make up for during the day, and since the time seemed to double by the day, it would mean that he would be out for 8 hours tomorrow. Given the circumstances, it would be wise to surrender and stay in his room for the day. He didn’t want his body to be found in an unknown location with raccoons trying to scrummage through his inventory, not that he had anything but potatoes… and maybe full diamond armour. You never know. He couldn’t seem to make out a pattern when he would fall asleep or the cause of this odd situation of his. 

He gave Philza a look and nodded, letting him know of his approval. “Good, that concludes our talk for today. I’m still not letting you off the hook though.” Phil looked at the boys who were still bickering and shooed them outside. 

“Well, you have a good rest and I’ll deal with these two loud chipmunks.”

With a wave, Phil shut the door behind them. Gently. Techno noticed the attempt from the old man and appreciated the thought. He rested his head onto the palm of his hands and thought to himself. He really needed to get his act together if he wanted to duel in the tournament because there was no way he was going to give up free clout and miss out on the loot. But firstly... He looked at his semi transparent top. He needed a shower prompto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1:36am
> 
> Thank you for the support! My exams are still going but the awful consecutive ones are done. Oh god I hated Physics and everything in general. Did you all liked getting called out for procrastination? :)
> 
> For whatever reason, the chapter looks a bit short, but it might be because I've been reading more fanfiction lately and other people average around like 3500+ words per chapter. Holy god, that's so much. My lazy heart can't take it.
> 
> This feels like a slow-paced story and I have a weird upload schedule. Schedule as in non-existent. I appreciate your patience. Imma go and get yelled at by mum, see ya!


	7. Journal

Resting his head against the cold cobble wall, Techno watches the moon slowly climb its way from one side of the horizon to the other. It was so slow. He never noticed how long the night was until now, wasting every second away. He was restless. He couldn’t sleep even if he wanted to. For an hour, his body was restless on the bed, tossing and turning, hoping to find the right spot to just drift off and start the day anew, but nothing. It was as if the darkness was the one to call him, he had no control over his sleeping schedule anymore, not that it was good in the first place. There was more comfort on the floor than on the bed and it might be because it reminded the body too much of what it wanted, the yearning creeped under his skin until it became too uncomfortable to force himself into a state of dream. It was much easier to give up and zone out. It was a better option as it was technically a form of daydreaming. Maybe he’ll do that from now on. Daydreaming instead of actually dreaming, doesn’t sound too bad of a substitute.

He groaned as he pushed himself up from the wall and shuffled towards his desk. His eyes lingered for a few minutes before sliding the wooden chair across the carpet, the friction causing it to bounce back until it hit his foot. Techno sat himself down and gathered his journal and quill. He would sometimes write down his adventures to look back on it to record what he had learnt and for memory’s sake too. There were actually a lot of reasons as it was beneficial no matter how you looked at it. There were times he was unfortunately not able to note everything down due to being in too difficult of a situation to do so hence he would postpone his entries, but by doing so, it would mean that too many events got in the way and it was inconvenient to try and remember every detail from the previous week. He was much too lazy to do that. There was no need to jot everything down if you had a good memory, but writing down would still be nice to read through at a later time. For now, he’s using this spare time to catch up on all the events in the past few months. It was also so he could pass time since there wasn’t really much to do given the situation. Maybe backtracking could help him recall some crucial moments which would aid him with whatever the hell was going on. There was no need to worry his brothers nor Philza any longer than need be.

His hand swooped up a match from inside his drawer and lit a candle which was stationed on his desk. The flames flickered in the quiet room, illuminating the melancholic cave like a Phoenix spreading its wings to cast the shadows away. Dipping the quill in a puddle of ink, black stains soon started to appear in the new empty journal.

_Journey no.14: ________________

What should he call it? After biting his lips and swinging his legs back and forth for a while, a title suddenly popped up in his head.

_The Hidden Village_

After everything he had been through, the village would probably be the highlight of it all. It was unlike anything he had seen before. It wasn't fancy or ostentatious, it was more so because it was clouded in mystery waiting for someone out there to unravel. Fuelled up by a spark of excitement, his inner author crawled out to meet with the quill and book.

 _Journey no.14:_ _The Hidden Village_

_I’m off once again to abandon my family and dive into the unknown. There’s really only four possible directions I could take: North, South, East, and West. I’ve already explored all four a thousand times, there’s no harm doing it again. It’s like opening the cupboard to look for snacks only to be met with nothing, so you close it and open it after a minute hoping it’ll magically appear but it doesn’t. Now your day is ruined. You’re welcome._

_Didn’t really feel like going South due to having to go past the village, what a pain. All I get are pairs of eyes staring at me and to be honest, it’s kind of uncomfortable even though I’m pretty used to it. I’ve been to the East and West a bit too many times so I thought I should give North a little bit of attention._

_It was your usual biomes: Forest, mountains, plains, and beach. When the waves touched the soles of my shoes, it hit me that I have never explored beyond this land, and into the ocean. Can anyone blame me? Exploring four biomes is already a lot, cut me some slack._

_I gathered five dark wooden planks and crafted a boat. The ecstasy of venturing into an unknown territory was something that I just couldn’t come down. The prolonged smile on my face made me feel like an utter fool. Grabbing my backpack with only the necessary equipment and supply, I finally set sail in what felt like it would have been a few days trip on the ocean, quickly turned into a few weeks._

_It was mainly a calm sail with a few rough tides here and there, not to mention some mobs trying to drown me with their trident. You know, your usual shenanigans._

_**Note to self:** Rob the Drowned of their tridents and flex :) _

_After staring at the ocean for a miserable amount of time, a silhouette appeared in the distant horizon. You have no idea how happy I was to see land after sailing aimlessly around this pathetic excuse of an ocean. It was lame, please don’t remind me about this voyage ever again. I’m absolutely going to riptide after_ ~~_stealing_ ~~ _getting my own trident._

_The closer I got to land, the darker and more gloomy the sky got. Usually one would turn back in these conditions, but come on, I was pretty sick of the ocean at this point. You try rocking backwards and forwards on your chair for more than 500 hours, see how you like that. It was clearly a swamp biome but to be honest, that was the first time actually setting foot on one. Legends have said that swamp biomes are one of the most dangerous biomes in the overworld. At least that was what I read in the children’s book._

_It felt a lot more uninviting than what I had previously thought. Mobs usually spawned in the dark and the swamp was naturally dangerous due to how zombies and skeletons could hide under the trees for shelter, not to mention zombies also often drowned in the water and became Drowned. That is such a stupid name. The next time I see one of them, I’m going to bully them so hard they wished they never died. Off track. It was worse due to the grey blanket that was hung above the land, blocking out the sun, leaving fireflies as the only light source which could guide me through this foreign area. This meant that it was no different to night time. I was basically a walking target._

_You would never have guessed what I was met with in the first minute my foot sunk into the moist soil. A few skeletons and zombies decided it would be a great idea to attack a fully armoured man. Add in a couple of slimes into the equation. This is why I love my life. It was odd, slimes were never a mob I had ever encountered despite being an experienced adventurer. They rarely appeared in textbooks so that basically meant that I learnt about how to deal with them the hard way. Their moves were all over the place, hopping here and there without a distinct pattern. It was already a bit overwhelming being welcomed by the other mobs, but for the slimes to multiply after every hit just completely threw me off. It was never a problem dealing with mobs, but the amount that was spawning and multiplying was insane._

_Not long after, my back was against the soft bark plastered on a dying tree with its leaves dangling all around like curtains, shielding me away from the danger. They’ve done their fair share of damage. Any longer and I wasn’t sure if I was going to survive. Just as that thought crossed my mind, something grabbed my ankle and pulled me under a waterhole that was positioned right next to me. What joy. I didn’t have enough time to breathe in so the uncertainty of how long I would be trapped underwater paralyzed me for a split second before hitting solid ground._

_Slowly opening up my scrunched up eyes, I could see that whatever I was in was much brighter than where I had just been before. It was a dimly lit room with torches on either side of the cobblestone walls with dark green moss along the cracks, filling up the gaps. A stream of murky water flowed on each side of the narrow path, didn’t really see the purpose of it being there, perhaps for the dripping water above to flow somewhere?_

_It took me a while, but it was finally brought to my attention that there were voices echoing through this tunnel. Rubbing my eyes so it could adapt to the new light, three people were standing in front of me, arguing about… probably about my holy presence._

_“That’s not a witch. The heck did you just pull down down?” It was the sound of a female with a rough voice and a heavy Irish accent._

_“Can we go one second without your mouth flapping like a stupid dog? Why don’t your bark at the soldiers instead? I’m sure they would love a lapdog dancing for them at a strip club for heaven’s sake! If it was you, you probably would’ve pulled down a skeleton and killed us all you nimwit.” This time, it was a male voice and it too had a rough sound to it._

_“Please stop fighting! I don’t think this is a good time to be doing that.” Another female voice but it was softer sounding which I was very grateful to. If the third voice was going to be just as loud, I may as well go back up and fight the mobs instead._

_A pair of knees bent down and a petite girl with black hair and dyed blonde stripes running down either side of her face smiled, lending out a helping hand. She wore a white buttoned up sweater, blue jeans, and black laced boots. “Are you ok? I’m sorry about that...” She looked behind at her group, eyeing them to quiet down. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around before. My name is Nihachu, but you can call me Niki. This is Schlatt in his fancy suit and red tie, and Minx in her creeper outfit.”_

_“Niki, you can’t just tell a freakin’ stranger who we are! What if y’know, he’s one of them?” Minx tried to look intimidating, but I don’t think I can ever take her seriously after seeing her in a creeper costume._

_“Oh shut up Minx.” Schlatt rolled his eyes. Approaching closer, he pinched my cheeks and gave me a big silly smile. “Welcome to the gang.”_

Techno leaned back, stretching his arms out and let out a yawn. He had been writing for quite a while. The dialogues were more or less accurate he thought, it suited their characters from memory. They were quite the interesting bunch as all three had rather different personalities. Minx and Schlatt were similar. Both were straightforward, but Minx was brutally honest while Schlatt was more manipulative and careful with his words. Niki on the other had a contrasting character to the other two, she was timid and polite but was strong enough to stand up for what she believed in. This contrast made Techno think about how different his own family was as well. 

The morning quickly came about with writing and recollecting to pass time. Maybe writing in the quiet time of the night was a good way to come closer to resolving this matter and also a good way to cope with the emptiness he felt. He nodded to himself in approval. He let himself rest as he waited for his family to rise up and start their day fresh. Techno chuckled bitterly at the thought.

. . .

. . 

.

“Tommy, you’re going out again?” Wilbur looked up from his cup of tea as he cocked his head to the side, letting his fringe reveal his left eye.

“Yeah, with Phil! He said he was going to help prepare for the festival and I wanted to tag along.” Tommy exclaimed with excitement, grabbing a few things to snack on the way to town.

“Yeah no, but didn’t we just go into town yesterday? Why do you want to go again so soon?”

“Because it’s fun. It’s better than being cooped up at home and doing nothing all day, and I am not letting you give me any more work. Logically speaking, if I’m not at home, you can’t do a thing to me.” He poked out his tongue playfully, pulling down the skin under his eyes with his index finger.

“Oh, you wanna bet?” The brunette set down his beverage and rose up from the couch.

Seeing how Wilbur was threatening him, Tommy ran to the entrance to call for Phil. “Old man! We’re leaving right now! Hurry up!”

A distant voice from upstairs replied. “Ok Tommy! I’ll be down in a jiffy.” There was a short silence before it was followed by a confused shout. “Wait Tommy, what did you just call me?” The two boys giggled from below.

Phil packed up the last of his belongings in a parakeet coloured rucksack. As he walked past Techno’s room, he knocked on it a few times to catch the younger’s attention.

“Hullooo~” Techno replied, his voice muffled by the obstacle which people call a door.

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I’m bringing Tommy to the festival with me.”

“Ok.” Techno hummed with disinterest.

Noting the tonality of his voice, Phil became a little bit worried. “Are you going to be ok?”

“Yep.” 

“Hokay. Just reminding you that you’re still grounded. When you think you’re feeling better, give me a shout and we’ll talk about it alright?”

Just when he was about to head downstairs, a sudden high-pitched scream nearly made Phil drop his heavy backpack. Quickly, he twisted the handle of the door and busted into Techno’s room. It was much cleaner than the last time he laid eyes upon it, which he found a tad weird but didn’t feel the need to question it. It was a good thing. For once he didn’t have a headache being surrounded by a mess. He found Techno leaning back in his chair, balancing it on its two hind legs as his eyes were cast down on his novel. Tearing his gaze from the final sentence from the page, his eyes met with Phil’s in confusion.

“Do you need something?” He said nonchalantly.

“What was that scream?!” Phil’s eyes were still in shock.

“You said I could give you a shout if I felt better. I feel great.” The pink hair gave Phil a sarcastic smirk.

“Ok.” Phil dragged. “I’m going to go, you have fun.” He facepalmed as he walked out of the room. Chuckling with every word that came out of his mouth.

“Likewise. Baiii~” Techno waved Phil a goodbye as the door closed in behind the older man. 

Shortly, Phil arrived at the front door to greet the other two boys. Wilbur was busy ruffling the blonde hair while Tommy was desperately trying to pull himself away from his sadistic older brother. Locking his greyish blue eyes with Phil’s, his brow furrowed in frustration, letting out an irritated squeak.

“You boys cut it out. Wilbur, stop bullying your brother. I have had enough of yelling for a day. Come on Tommy, let’s go.” Tommy blew raspberry at Wilbur which the brunette blew mockingly back. Watching the two slowly and slowly walk further away down the hill, Wilbur turned back to bother the only other person in this household.

Another knock came outside Techno’s door. “Hullooo~”

“Can I come in?”

“Why does everyone want to visit me today? Yes, you may come in.” He sighed.

Wilbur looked around a bit before sitting himself down on the bed which was covered in pig designs. It was pleasantly clean which made him slightly disappointed since he was back to being the only one who had an unorganised room. Throwing his back against the mattress, he asked, “So… What are you up to? I heard that Phil wasn’t too happy yesterday, you want to... maybe tell me what’s going on?”

Still focused on his novel, he responded in a monotone voice. “Meh, nothing much. Just been napping a bit too frequently.”

Wilbur laughed in confusion. “He scolded you for napping too much? What the heck? Is he finally catching up to his age? Wow, ok. I thought it was something serious because Tommy was looking a bit glum. He can try to hide under his rude remarks to throw me off, but I’ve lived with him long enough to tell if something is bothering him. Techno, you sure that’s all that was?”

“Oh Tommy? I might have teased him a bit too much about his sticks.”

“No, not his sticks! How could you. Those are a man’s pride, to think you’d shoot it down just like that, no wonder he was so upset.” Wilbur’s voice was full of sarcasm and teasing, causing the pink hair to snigger.

“You know what they call me?”

“What?”

Techno blinked back. It slipped out of his mouth and he didn’t really have an answer to it. “Uh… Ladder man. Sorry, I was reading this page aloud.”

“I want to be a Ladder man too. What’s that book you’re reading?” Wilbur rolled himself to the side, squinting his eyes to make out what was labelled on the spine of the book. “The Art of War?”

“Yep. There’s no better strategy than becoming the Ladder man. You don’t want to know what the Ladder man can do.” Techno shivered.

“Remind me to never mess with the Ladder man, I’m sure the Ladder man can overcome rising floods and lava.” Wilbur played along. He jumped off from the bed and headed out. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room.”

“Mkay. Baiii~” He picked up his book from the table and resumed reading. After hearing his door click he thought to himself. If he was going to pass out for 8 hours, might as well just lie in bed all day so he doesn’t make Wilbur worry. That was the last thing he wanted to do. If Wilbur found out as well, there would be no point in hiding anything. Imagine if he made a song about it, how ridiculous would that make Techno feel.

Flopping on his bed that had been warmed up by his brother, his eyes stared at the ceiling for hours until the drowsiness finally hit. Just before falling asleep, he noted to himself that he had to pay a visit to Fundy later tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 6:52PM
> 
> This is what you get for making me get into a good sleep schedule. *Blows raspberry* I have a question, are the italics a bit much to read?
> 
> Let's ignore the fact that I have to keep adding character tags. Let's just pretend I'm big brain and that the extra tags are a surprise feature in this fanfic.
> 
> Exams are over and I'm free! Not from this fanfic, but still free! Yay! Whoo, poggers! Ok, I'm going to head back into my shell and become a hermit again. See you guys in one thousand years. I love my update schedule.


	8. One Green Boi

The air was full of laughter and excitement. The men were setting up the tournament grounds, the women were decorating the interior and exterior of the place with flowers and ornaments, and the children were running around trying to reenact warriors on the battlefield with their wooden sword and shields. How quickly the atmosphere had changed from the last time Tommy was here, which was yesterday. It was as if a fairy showered the town with pixie dust and transformed it into a glistening paradise of life. His eyes darted around, unable to keep still as he basked in his surroundings, treasuring this scenery so he could dig it out some other time to replay it once more. Birds were chirping, flowers were blooming, on days like this, kids like him should be able to enjoy himself to the fullest.

Tugging on Phil’s jacket, the child pointed towards a flower stand. Reluctantly, the older followed. If it meant Tommy could have as much fun as he could, he was willing to comply with the little gremlin’s command and postpone his duty for a little while longer. Resting his arm on the counter, Phil gazed down at how big the little one’s eyes were as it followed a small yellow buzz. Hopping from flower to flower, greedily taking away its nectar but then sharing its pollen around.

“Are you fond of bees?” Phil asked.

Tommy looked up at him from his crouched stance in disgust and shook his head. “Nah, not really. They’re kinda stupid. All they do is gather supplies for the queen and then die. But I think they’re cool because they’re loyal and tough. It’s really fun to watch them work. I wonder if I can have a friend who’s like a bee, I would bully them non-stop ahaha!”

“Noooo, don’t turn into Techno. Gosh, we already have one wild boar in the house, we don’t need another.” Phil smiled in defeat. Gently, he pulled the child away from the stand and bid the flower lady goodbye by taking his hat off in a quick motion before plopping it back on. 

They walked towards a long wooden building where the top half was made out of spruce wood and the rest oak, with unlit lanterns hanging down each corner of the eaves. A line of organised bushes rustled under the window sills, making it easier for visitors and workers to find the entrance to the spacious establishment. Up the slabs and through the doors, the two were met with a middle aged lady with her dark brown hair tied back in a loose bun, held together by a pair of accessory which resembled that of a chopstick. Upon seeing their arrival, her white dress with blue hydrangeas dotted all over trailed behind her at knee length, she rushed over to the table to gather the posters which were neatly piled in stacks, waiting for Phil.

“No need to rush, we’ve got all day to do this.” Phil lent a helping hand, scooping the pile from under her with ease and dumping a third of it to Tommy.

She shifted up her glasses which were sliding down her face in a shy manner as she fiddled with her pearl like earrings. “Thank you for helping us put up the posters. We’re very busy here and didn’t have enough hands, so your help is very appreciated.” She looked down at Tommy and greeted. “Oh hey Tommy.”

“Hey. Say, how do you get a wife and how do you divorce one?” Phil immediately pulled the child away by the collar, gently shoving him outside.

“I’m so sorry. I’ll be back to get some more.” Phil's eyebrows furrowed apologetically, earning a giggle from the woman.

“If you need any help, just know I’m always here. I’ll see you later Phil.” She waved, disappearing as the door closed behind them.

“What the hell was that Tommy?” He ruffled the younger’s hair.

“What?! I was feeling in the mood for a wife and I’ve said this, and you’ve been unhelpful. So I thought surely a woman would know. Imagine being single and still not having a wife.”

“I have no time to look for one when you and your brothers are always causing trouble.”

“Mhm, like what?” Tommy folded his arms trying to assert his dominance.

“You really want me to do this?” Phil tilted his head up, staring at the sign of an inn in thought, sorting through his years of memory together with them. “You tried to sell fake drugs in an alleyway. Will tried to blow up an entire nation because he wanted to see if it would sound better than using cannons for… who was it… Tchaikovsky’s 1813… 1812 Overture? Techno tried to summon the wither because he thought it would be fun.”

“Well, it just seems to me that it’s time to step up my fun. Maybe you’re just getting old, I think it’s time you found yourself a wife.”

“Ok Tommy, go over there far away from me and hang up your posters. When you’re done, go back and get some more ok? I’ll meet you back here at sun down and don’t go bothering the locals with unnecessary questions.” 

Tommy bid farewell and ran off to the opposite direction of Phil so that they could cover more ground quicker. Walking alone by himself made him notice a few individuals with masks on. The competitors of the tournament were allowed to wear masks to keep their anonymity. He didn’t really know why. It could be because of maintaining one’s own pride when struck down or maybe just for the fun of it. It was funny when he saw people with odd looking masks, it made him cackle just imagining such a face on a serious battlefield.

Clouded in thought, he accidentally bumped into someone which caused his posters to flutter in the air. He rubbed his forehead and shook it before apologising to the stranger who offered to pick up the scattered sheets. After picking the posters up and brushing the dirt off, Tommy collected them from the other as his ears blushed with embarrassment.

“Sorry. I wasn’t looking.” He slowly looked up. The stranger wore black pants, brown belt and black boots with brown straps around his right thigh to hold his small possessions. His sleeves were pulled back along his arms, covering the exposed areas and his hand with long, black, fingerless gloves. The only armour he had were leather shoulder pads which sat casually over his green hoodie.

“No, I’m sorry as well. I should’ve looked at where I was going. My mistake.” The man apologised.

“Makes sense seeing how you have a white facemask with a stupid looking smiley face on it.”

“Hey! I think it looks good. I think it really brings out the beauty of my face.”

“Huh. No wonder you need to wear a mask. How do you even see through it?”

The stranger shrugged, ignoring the plain insult. “I just can. It’s a talent.”

“Talent my ass.” Tommy immediately tried to hold back his tongue but realised it was too late. He forgot to try and filter himself after being around his brothers for quite some time, but it wasn’t like he was known to be polite anyways.

“So what are you doing?” The man tried to shift the conversation away.

“Just putting up posters for the tournament. Oh yeah, by the way, are you a competitor because I see that you’re wearing a mask like a few others.” Tommy asked, walking away to put some up, gesturing the other to follow him with his gaze.

“You’re very observant.” Sarcasm was obvious in the stranger’s playful tone. It wasn’t hard to spot sarcasm anymore after having Techno as your brother. “My name’s Dream and this is my first time here. I was around the area so I thought I would pop in to get some prize money.”

“By around the area you mean the thick forest surrounding us?” Dream shrugged again, nodding at an angle as his hands moved like a weighing scale. Tommy put a few posters up on the walls, then some on a couple of windows, the public toilet, and on a toddler’s face, causing them to run into a pole before continuing the conversation. “You said that you want to get the prize money like it’s a walk in the park. What makes you think that?”

“Oh you know, I’m a pretty good fighter.” He rested his hands on his hips as he followed the child around town.

“That’s what they all say until they fight Techno.”

“Who’s Techno?” Dream asked with curiosity.

“Technoblade? He’s a god of combat and has literally never lost once. He pretty much shows up every now and then to get some money and then just does nothing for 6 months. You could say that this is basically his source of income.” The blonde explained, slapping a poster on the back of a cat.

Placing his gloved hands on his chin for a moment, the green boi argued. “Interesting, but you see… uh… I don’t think I got your name.”

“Tommy.”

“Tommy. I’m like seriously good at fighting. No joke. I know it sounds like I’m bragging but I’m telling you, I could probably take this Technoblade dude on, maybe even two of them at once. I, too, have never lost a fight in my life.”

The child stopped in his tracks to challenge Dream’s words with his glare, but was unable to see through the mask and continued walking down the laid out path. “Has anyone told you that you sound so annoyingly cocky? Holy sh- you’re more annoying than me, and that means something coming from Tommyinnit. But you know Dream, there’s always a first time for everything.” Tommy shot him a wry smile.

“Look at you, you’re sounding confident yourself. Too bad I’m going to shatter the image of your beloved hero. What a shame.” He countered.

The two chatted for a while, exchanging information about each other. Tommy told him about his family and his hobbies when no one tried to order him around. This consisted of building forts, swatting cattles and pigs away with a pair of sticks, decorating the mines with Wilbur’s diamond blocks, etc. Out of courtesy, Dream did the same. It turns out that he was from the small village from the West where people were happy and content with trading with merchants who comes in and out. It was more peaceful and there were no crimes whatsoever. One could say it was the ideal place for retirement.

“So the reason why you have a hundred percent win rate is because you’ve never fought. Makes sense.”

“What? No!” The hooded man could sense the confusion in the young one’s mind. He had boasted about his skill yet he was brought up in a tranquil environment. It was contradictory. Dream explained in further detail. “You see Tommy, just because I was born in a stupi- a nice village, doesn’t mean that I had to restrict myself to that one place only. You may have stayed in one place your whole life, but I’m an adventurer Tommy. Someone like me doesn't stay for too long, I walk across the Earth to polish my skills. How about you and me go venture somewhere into the unknown? I’m sure we would have such a blast.”

Tommy thought about it for a moment. “I think that sounds nice. Techno never lets me come along, saying that I would be a burden and probably send myself to hell early. What a prick.”

“Your brother sounds like a party pooper.” The child rolled his eyes in agreement. “I’m cooler and I’d actually take you places.”

The sun was gradually setting and Tommy was able to successfully put up three piles of posters before heading back to the meeting point that Phil had set. As they walked past a familiar looking inn, Dream tapped Tommy’s shoulders from behind. “It was nice talking to you kid. If you’re ever bored, I’ll definitely be here after sun down.”

“Sounds good.” Tommy gave Dream a thumbs up and waved goodbye. “See you big man.”

“See you Little T.” Dream waved back.

Walking alone now felt a bit empty, like all the liveliness was just sapped away all of the sudden. It had been a while since he had such a long conversation with someone which didn’t consist of solely teasing and belittling. It was kind of refreshing in some sense.

After sitting inside, talking to the lady in white and blue for a while until Tommy felt a pat in the back. He turned around and found Phil’s hair dripped in sweat. He held his hat in his hand so he wouldn’t have to wash the sweat stain when they went back. Tommy asked him why he looked like he got piss poured over him and Phil responded with a cackle.

“I am not in piss, Tommy. It was pretty hot today and some carnival monkey kept harassing me and the posters kept flying away. Hell, it’s just so hot.” He looked down and Tommy who tried to hide his joy behind a frown that just wouldn’t keep still. “You’re either smiling because of my misfortune or something good happened today.”

“Phil, you know, speaking of harassment, I got harassed by a green man today.”

“What did you do this time?”

“What did I do?!” He scoffed. “You should be asking what he did to me!”

“What did he do to you Tommy?” Phil said reluctantly with a sigh.

“Nothing much. He just followed me around and we just talked about stuff. Do you know if there is a village in the West? Wherever that is, because that’s where he lives.”

Taking Tommy’s hand, they started to walk out of the village and onto a slope. Their home sat a few hills away from where they were. It wasn’t too far, just a little inconvenient at times. It was a good idea to leave before the sun fully settled as the night would be crawling with mobs jump-scaring the piss out of people.

Phil thought about the question for a moment, dragging out unnecessary sounds to buy time for how he would answer. It had been quite some time since he travelled about due to Techno’s frequent absence. Someone had to look after the two irresponsible children. Wilbur would be fine on his own, but he wasn’t too sure about Tommy and what would happen after prolonged exposure between the two.

“To my memory… none that is close to us. It would be pretty far away I think, at least like 5 biomes and an ocean apart. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was because the world is pretty big, but that seems a hell of a long distance to just get to here.”

“He travels a lot though.”

“Ah… that would explain it.”

Once they got back to base, the first thing Phil did was go upstairs to check on Techno. He was granted permission to go in, only to see Techno hanging upside down from his bed reading a book. It seemed to Phil that being grounded probably bored him out of his mind. To be fair, he hadn’t let Techno be productive all day, but it was for his own good.

“How are you feeling?”

“So unbelievably bored, please let me out. I can feel my back aching just being in this position for a long time. I even started to dust my room out and organise my shelf of books. I have so much energy I could probably summon 20 more wither skeletons from scratch.” 

“Hmm… If you genuinely think you’re doing better, I guess I could unground you.” Techno slapped his book close, threw it across his room and grabbed Phil’s hand, shaking it firmly.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” As the pink hair was about to run off, he was pulled back by the collar of his white blouse which nearly caused him to fall backwards on top of Phil.

“Ah-ah. Where do you think you’re going?”

“Believe it or not, I actually ordered something today so I’m getting my package right now.”

“At this hour? The sun’s about to set.”

“You don’t think I can handle a few creepers on my own? Come on Phil.”

“No, I think you’re more than capable but I think you could still get the package tomorrow morning. Get some rest tonight.” Rest was the last thing Techno needed. All he had done for the whole day was cleaning his room and lying on his bed reading. He felt fidgety and the energy that was bottled inside of him didn’t really help. Nonetheless, he reluctantly agreed and stayed put until all the lights went out.

When midnight struck, Techno jumped out of his window and sprinted towards the village. Technically, he wasn’t disobeying Phil as 12:01am still counted as the next morning, what a nice person he was. 

The streets were empty with only the street light illuminating the pavement. Arriving at Fundy’s shop, he could see the smaller man on the verge of dozing off in his chair which was seated outside the main entrance. Techno tapped his shoulders which caused him to flair his arm around, screaming. Opening his eyes, he retrieved his arms back to a crossed position and smiled with his teeth, cheeks blushing due to embarrassment.

“Ah… H-hey Techno… Buddy!” Fundy gulped, trying to sound as smooth as possible. He really wasn’t. Quite the opposite. His voice was trembling, unsure if it was fear or the fact he squealed like a little baby in the middle of the night. “I thought ya weren’t gonna come!”

Fundy heaved himself up and walked into the building, signalling Techno to follow with a swing of his arm. He circled around his workbench, spreading his fingers out to present the contraption.

“What do ya think?” His amber eyes sparkled with glee.

The taller man crouched down to inspect it, gently picking it up, rotating it 360. He held it like a sniper, with one eye looking at the fine details of the design and mechanics behind it.

“Could I try it on?”

“Y-Yeah! Go for it, it’s all yers.”

He slipped his left arm into the armour-like glove, closing and opening his fingers to feel the friction and flexibility of this device. To his surprise, it was lighter than it looked and it was more comfortable than he thought.

“Hey, you reckon I could wack this against the wall with full force and it’ll still stay intact?”

“I haven’t tried it, but why not. I’ll just have to make one from scratch if ya do happen to break it. I’ve done it once, it won’t be as hard the next time.”

He hammered it against the ground as hard as he could. He changed his mind because he realised that there was a probability that the whole shop would collapse if the walls weakened under his brute force. He lifted his arm up, twisting his wrist around and wiggling his finger again to see if there was any difference. It was very sturdy. The glove was able to protect him from the ground shock, but then he wondered if he had damaged any of the mechanics inside of it.

“How do I know if it still works?”

“If ya try falling asleep, it should shock ya good. Ya can always come back and get it fixed, but ya can’t get a refund. I’m keeping yer payment.”

“Hm… Fair.” He nodded awkwardly, looking around to excuse himself. “I guess I’m going to be off-”

“Wait wait wait!” Fundy stretched his arm out to stop the customer. “I didn’t have time to whip up a proper safety manual for ya so ye’ll just have to remember some stuff.”

“Go ahead.”

“First thing’s first. Whatever ya do, do not submerge yer glove in water since it has electric wiring inside. Water will easily seep through. If it does happen, I put an emergency button over here...” His palm faced up, signing Techno to place his gloved arm above it. Fundy twisted his arm so that his palm also faced upwards.

“Ya see here?” He pointed to the upper part of the glove, the glove itself was no longer than elbow length. There was a small square incisioned on the metal material. “Push it in, twist it clockwise and hold it for three seconds. It should open up. I wanted to make sure it doesn’t open up too easily or too hard. Over on the back of yer wrist, ya should see something similar. Exactly the same thing. Ye'll see 5 different levels of electrocution. I recommend the highest ya should go for safety is 3, maybe 4 if ye’re pushing it. In my opinion, 1 should already be enough to give ya a good shock.”

As he finished speaking, a small furry head popped up from under the table, peering out from the comfortable home it had just made for itself. Its ears flapped, tilting its head at the stranger on one side and then the other. Upon noticing this, Techno crouched down to give its unkempt fur a little attention, brushing it down with his free hand.

“Is this Fungi?” He asked.

“Yeah, cute ain’t he?” Fundy came around the bench and crouched down on the same level, ruffling the fox’s cheeks. “Who’s a good fluffy boy? You are!”

The poofy tail began wagging rapidly, thumping about. Panting noises gradually got louder and small squeaks of delight could be heard from the lovable creature. After being entertained by the small animal for a while longer, Techno finally bid the shopkeeper farewell. Fundy thought to himself, maybe Technoblade isn’t as scary as the tales were told. Maybe he was just a chill dude who accidentally got himself into plenty of fights and just happened to be really good at protecting himself. Who really knows but the man himself. At least from his perspective, the man left a good impression and perhaps in the future, they could make some very good trades.

“16 hours.” Techno muttered to himself, staring at the metallic wrap around his arm, reflecting off the warm light of his candle in the safety of his room. He didn’t even want to know what would happen today. One way or another, he would be able to test this bad boy out. If it doesn’t, welp, he was screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11:51am yesterday 
> 
> I was going to post this earlier but I already closed my laptop, and hey, could you tell this chapter was longer? I took 5 days to write this and I am now done with writing, please end me. I don’t even remember what happened in this first half.
> 
> Dream pog? Subtle (not really) mentions of Tubbo and Kristin pog? Speaking of which, holy damn you guys were mean in the previous chapter. I know I left you guys with a cliffhanger a while back but gosh diddly darn XD I love you all ♥


	9. Negotiation

_The three locals escorted me to their underground base after many twists and turns. It was surprisingly big for a work of three. The closer into the heart of the tunnel, the more pathways were present. Schlatt informed me it was to throw any intruders off. They would have to dig up from this hell hole. This would only add to how confusing one would have to navigate through here. It was no problem for them as they were the ones who made it, in addition, they had pretty good memories. I don’t think I would get lost either as I have a great sense of direction. Among the many nicknames given to me without consent, ‘Human GPS’ was one of them._

_There was something odd that I noticed along the way. Schlatt led us in front followed by Niki, me, and Minx at the back to keep a close eye on me. Schlatt would casually brush his hand along a wall and a soft click which could only be picked up by the trained ear could be heard a few ticks later. After doing the same motion two more times, we arrived at a dead end. There were six levers in a horizontal line on the right side of Schlatt. He hit a button on his left which caused the wall behind us to close. We were boxed in with very little place to move around comfortably. Niki apologised for the startle as Minx rolled her eyes. I have never seen as much attitude in a person before in my life. Schlatt proceeded to pull down five levers one after another and tapped the floor twice with his feet. This initiated the wall in front of us to open up like a lion’s mouth to the stomach of its operation. As he was about to step through the entrance, Minx pushed between Niki and I to slap Schlatt on the head._

_“Can you not do the tappy tap every time? I swear to god I’m going to snap your head one of these days.” Minx said as she removed her creeper top and threw it over onto a coat hanger pole. Stretching her arms out, she fell down onto a grey couch._

_“For crying out loud Minx, stop ruining my fun! Techno, listen, that was pretty cool huh?” Schlatt turned around to face me with his arms open in a confidence stance._

_“You mean how you got the wall to open with a few taps? Yeah, how did you do that?” I questioned._

_“Secret-” Unfortunately for Schlatt, Minx decided to expose the secret. It turned out that there was a button on the bottom of the rear wall which had previously closed behind us. After Schlatt’s signal - which was the tappy tap - Minx kicked it with her heels to activate the redstone which explained how the entrance opened. At best I would’ve concluded that it were sensors/observers, but even that wouldn’t have made any sense._

_Niki giggled as Schlatt walked in and sat down on the far side of the couch away from Minx. As we entered, Niki started to explain how Schlatt wanted to show her this trick and for days they had kept it quiet from her. He enjoyed seeing her in awe every time he opened the door up, but one day Minx decided to reveal it because she didn’t want Schlatt to feel happy nor did she want to deceive Niki any longer. She hated seeing him smile all day every day and this was the only time she could ever actually get back at him for all the times he had offended her._

_This is from future me: I think she actually likes the treatment._

_Suddenly, a beeping noise could be heard from the low ceiling, purple lights flashed with short periods of breaks in between. The three hurried over to a small waterway which had bubbles shooting vertically up. The two girls put on a plain beige dress which covered them until their ankles. The sleeves were cut short above their elbows with loose fabric hanging freely from the seams. The collar of their dress wrapped around between their neck and shoulders just enough to expose their collar bones. They sprayed something in the air which showered down around them like a curtain of mist. Not long after, they stepped into the water which pulled their bodies up as if they were ascending to heaven. Schlatt stripped his suit and threw it onto the coach and put on a white tunic with a beige coat. Just as he was about to spray something above him, he noticed that I was still wearing my own clothes._

_"Oh shi- I can't have you roaming around like a royalty, you will be accused of treason. We don't want your pretty little head to be rolling on the floor now do we?"_

_He made haste of the short time we presumably had left. He flicked open a chest and threw a few pieces of garments at me and I put it on without a question. Time was of an essence and I'm not one to waste it on pointless chatter, questions and answers can come later. The outfit given was identical to his, but it was slightly small for the fitting. The only reason Schlatt had an extra costume which was oversized was because Minx wanted to prank him, which she did and he looked stupid for a week. I was lucky because it didn't seem like anyone else had a second pair._

_Leaving my own clothes out to dry on a hanger - the outfits that were hung by the ladies were removed to prevent them from being soaked - Schlatt sprayed the same substance over us and we quickly shot up to a small room which looked like an empty storage room. To my surprise, I was not completely soaked like last time after falling into the one block of water. It was most likely the doing of the spray. I should probably get a sample of it before going home some time, seems handy. Opening the door, we hurried down a hallway, into the living room and behind the front door. The two female companions were already there, talking to two soldiers with swords sheathed at their side._

_"Boys!" Schlatt exclaimed with open arms, interrupting the conversation and inviting himself into a group hug. "Inspection again?"_

_"I'm afraid so." One replied._

_"Don't you ever get bored if this? Inspecting the whole village once a week? But to be fair, it is a lot better than doing it everyday a few years ago. That was an unnecessary amount of work."_

_"Heh, I'll say. Hey, who's that behind you?" The other soldier questioned, his hand ready on the hilt of his sword._

_"This big guy? He's my distant nephew, a bit huge ain't he?" Schlatt patted my stomach with his backhand. To this day, I still don't know why he did that._

_"Hm… Interesting choice of hair colour." It seemed to me that they had started an interrogation, which was just what we needed._

_"Y'know, before_ ** _he_ ** _came into rule, this guy right here was already separated from me. A bit of a rascal he's become. Decided to finally visit his ol' uncle after 3 years, how neat."_

_"Hey," I interrupted, looking over behind him. Beads of sweat and a hint of worry could be seen behind the look that he shot at me. Brows sinking down towards the middle, signalling me to stop whatever I was doing, but since when could anyone. "This was the reason I left. You were always being a baby complaining about this and that. I wanted none of it."_

_Minx covered her mouth to suppress her laughter, causing her to cough, thereby breaking the tension in the air. She excused herself to get a glass of water and Niki offered to help. Schlatt played along, massaging the bridge of his nose with his index and thumb._

_"You see boys, this is why I don't like to talk about him, he's a real work."_

_The shoulders of the soldiers visibly relaxed, dropping down a little. Their fingers unravelling the hilt of their swords and instead, rested on either side of their body._

_"The kids got a point Schlatt, you do complain a lot when you're at work." One of the soldiers stated._

_"I sense no lie. Bringing him along for one of our scouts would be interesting. I think it's in your best interest to notify the King, don't think he would appreciate an outsider lurking around his own home all too much." The other stated._

_With that, they were left. When their backs were turned, Schlatt decided to flip them off from behind and closed the door. He let out a big sigh and cursed loudly. An echo could be heard from the kitchen. Minx's laugh finally erupted and it wasn't until for quite some time it started to die down. Hiccuping with tears running down her cheeks. Niki smiled nervously at me as she patted Minx on the back, calming her down._

_Schlatt sat us down around the dining table to explain to me what had happened to this area. Up until three years ago, the village had been peaceful with walls surrounding them to protect themselves from the mobs when night dawned. One day, a bunch of black-hooded men entered our village and demanded to set up a base here, but the villagers refused. They had no right to set up in other people's territory. The mysterious men were displeased with this response and claimed that if they couldn't have their own land, they would just have to make it their own. Weeks later and nothing. It all sounded like an empty threat until one night, the walls were torn down without anyone knowing and monsters came pouring in. Killing many innocents. Adults, children, it didn't matter. Monsters don't distinguish their victims apart, nor did they give a damn. Dead bodies littered the streets becoming a path for the monsters to roam about. There were still the majority of the population remaining and most of them hid inside their homes, some wielded their weapons to fend off the mobs, while only a small percentage of people actually managed to escape this cursed swamp biome._

_The hooded figures showed up again and slowly, they slayed the monsters and all was well. The locals were overjoyed and worshipped them as heroes. History tells that the arrival of these mysterious men were messengers sent by god to warn and protect them from the casualty that would take place. After the accident, the leader of the group reshaped the village, building obsidian walls around it to keep them safe and switched the system to monarchy._

_Schlatt stated that he had some doubts about their heroism. He believes that they were the ones who tore the walls down in the first place to trick the people into thinking they were their saviours, only to build a sturdy wall to keep the locals trapped within, not to protect them. It seemed to Schlatt that the current king wanted full control over the land and its people, even if it meant bodies had to pile up to do so._

_"So how come you guys aren't under his influence? He seems pretty popular, not that I know since the only thing I've seen are hostile mobs and a hostile Irish lady." In my peripheral vision, I could see Minx nearly jumping up to throw her fist on me, only to be held back by Niki._

_"I was part of the group who kept the people safe, so I would know what happens inside and outside of this treacherous hell hole. Heck, I was there when those lunatics walked over here all high and mighty. As if surviving wasn't hard enough already. They check in to see if there would be anyone who would go against them."_

_"So why are you so close to those soldiers?" I questioned._

_"Connections my friend! You've got to be chummy with your enemies in order to move freely. Get with the system to beat it. I'm part of the army so I can basically do whatever I like without as much suspicion."_

_"What about these two?"_

_"We have names you know?!" Minx growled._

_"He was talking to me, not you. Shut up!" As they bickered, Niki decided to fill me in._

_"They have been friends a couple of years before the incident so that's how they know each other. They are very close and when Schlatt told Minx, she more or less believed him even if she hated to admit it. I met Minx when the soldiers completely destroyed my flower shop. There aren't many flowers around here so people liked having these beautiful plants decorated in their households, but since the king decided to tear down anything that he deemed unnecessary to manage our resources, he ordered them to… yeah… made a mess out of my poor flowers. I could've just planted them elsewhere if he had just asked. Minx defended me and told them off. You know her, she has quite the temper. Hehe. That's how we became friends and later she told me about everything that has been going on though Schlatt didn't seem too happy about it, but he didn't mind it too much after we started to get along."_

_"So you just believed them? Just like that?"_

_"It wasn't that I believed them, I trusted them. I don't think they would lie, especially after getting to know them more. It makes sense."_

_"Well, if you'd like, I could be your wildcard." I offered._

_All I got was blank stares, probably because that came out of nowhere. Look, I'm not smooth at guiding conversations._

_A sly smile curved from Schlatt's face._

_"You already were from the moment we adopted you."_

_Never would I have thought I would hear those words directed at me._

.

. .

. . .

“You want to enter the competition Tommy?” Phil asked. His body turned away from the child, organising the chests which everyone had access to. No one in this household bothered to sort them out, and it would always take them so long to open and close chests until they found the desired material.

“Yeah, I kind of want to do it this year. Techno does it every time so I thought I should join him too.”

“You mean in the same competition? The competitive one?”

“YEAH! I’m going to punch these suckers until they breathe no mo!” Tommy exclaimed, bouncing around with his arms tucked in shielding his face, throwing punches in the air.

“Nope.” Phil rejected, popping the 'p'. “Techno’s Techno. You’re too young, what if you get hurt?”

“Oh come on! You said I could go once I turned 16 and now I am. Let me go! I’ll prove to you how much of a man I’ve become.”

As Tommy whined, Wilbur walked in after having eavesdropped on their conversation.

“Quit bothering Dadza. He said no, and that’s a no. You’re yapping like a Chihuahua, you want some treats? I have some treats. C’mere little doggy, who’s a good boy?”

Wilbur earned himself a punch from the teenager, deservingly so for mocking him.

“Will, quit teasing your younger brother, he’s not your pet. I’ll tell you what, if you can beat Will in a fight then I’ll consider letting you in the non-competitive one first. If you win, then I’ll let you into the competitive one next time.” Phil negotiated.

“Oh I’m so going to beat your ass.” Tommy poked his tongue out at Will.

“You can’t even reach it.” Will reciprocated his brother’s action.

They asked Phil if he could act as a referee, but was denied due to being hung up with helping the townspeople. Their last resort was to turn to their eldest. They raced up the stairs and slammed the door open.

“Thank you VERY much for inviting yourself in. What may I help you with on this fine day?”

Techno was slightly in a bad mood, but neither of the intruders paid any mind to it. They went onto explain the situation in which Tommy had to duel Wilbur in order to participate in the event. Their explanation was all over the place as one would always talk on top of the other. Techno more or less grasped what was happening and agreed.

“Sure, I don’t mind. But aren’t you a bit young to fight? It’s not all fun and games even if it’s the non-competitive ones.” To that, Tommy rolled his eyes, complaining that Phil had said the same thing.

Out on the courtyard, the two males drew their sword, 6 feet apart because they are not gay. Techno was seated on the side lines, waiting for the two in leather armour to get ready. They had been bickering for a good half and hour and spent another getting their armour and weapons ready before finally arriving at their destination.

On Techno’s mark, they readied themselves and drew their swords and shields. As soon as the signal was given, Tommy launched himself at Wilbur, causing the taller man to run away. As the chase began, Tommy kept throwing curses and insults but it was ineffective. After a while of cat and mouse, Wilbur suddenly turned around to roundhouse kick Tommy’s chest, causing the startled child to fall on the ground. His throat was met with a wooden sword and a wide lopsided grin.

“Aw~ Tommy thought he could beat me in a fight?”

“Best to three you dumb curly haired penguin who wishes it can fly but can’t because he’s too lanky!”

Wilbur scoffed at the poorly attempted remark and grabbed his brother’s hand to heave him up. The musician smiled at Techno before resuming his position for the next round.

Again, Wilbur began the match by running away, which Tommy couldn’t stop groaning loudly every few seconds. It seemed to him that Will was stalling to use up his stamina, so when they actually fought, Will would have leverage. Even so, Tommy still chased after his brother until he started to get tired. Taking advantage of the younger’s state, the taller man swung his sword for the first time, but was blocked by the other’s shield. The slashes kept on coming, pushing Tommy back every step of the way until he felt something on the upper frame of his shield. Will had launched himself onto the shield, throwing his weight down to crush Tommy, causing him to fall on his back with no way to escape. Before he could think of anything, Techno stopped the fight, acknowledging Wilbur as the winner of that round.

“But Techno, he played dirty!” The child complained.

“A win’s a win. This is what people can do during tournaments so you better watch yourself if you’re really thinking of participating. Listen Tommy, no one fights fair and that’s something everyone has to learn the hard way.”

“But I could’ve wormed my way out of it. You didn’t have to stop the match so technically it wasn’t over.”

“You two made me the referee. Don’t question my decisions.”

“Yeah, and a win’s a win.” Wilbur repeated, his hands on his hip looking smugly down at Tommy.

As the third round commenced, Tommy had to be more tactical about his movements, it was too predictable and Wilbur was obviously having a kick out of it. He felt humiliated by someone who stayed in their room, strumming a wood with six strings all day. If Wilbur’s strategy was draining his energy and catching him by surprise, maybe he should do the exact opposite of what his opponent wants. It was worth a shot. So instead of charging forward, Tommy remained at his spot which was received with an odd look from his brother.

“What? You too scared to approach me? I won’t bite.” Will smiled.

His words were taunting the youngest, but Tommy was resolved to stay put and see what the other had to offer. Out of nowhere, a flying shield came hurtling towards him, flinging his own shield off into the air. His eyes followed the pair of shields tumbling behind him and then turned to look at Wilbur who was already in a stance to fire his arrows at him. Swearing under his breath, he started to run around the court. With no shield, he was basically a walking target. The same applied to Will, but he had the upper hand as he was on the offense and Tommy on the defense without anything to protect himself.

“Heh, you wanted me to come to you? Fat chance!”

Will’s aim was far from perfect, but it was decent enough to sometimes land on his desired targets. There were no obstacles for Tommy to hide, so all he could was to keep running until the arrows ran out, which felt neverending. Will had been studying his brother’s moves for the duration of the round and more or less found a pattern. Forward, forward, back, forward, back, back, and repeat. Striking where he thought Tommy would go proved his theory right. As Tommy was distracted by the arrow sticking out of his leather chestplate, he felt a force swing below his feet and he was off balance once again. A feet made itself comfortable on his chest and at that moment, Techno called the match to a halt, announcing Wilbur as the victor. Will flicked Tommy’s forehead before pulling him up again.

“No hard feelings? Honestly, you didn’t do too bad even though you were completely at my mercy. Stop furrowing your eyebrows, you’ll become an old man faster than Phil, you wouldn’t want that would you?” He teased, but Tommy was having none of it.

He needed to improve, he needed someone who was better than Will and willing to teach him. Not many would at this time of the year due to everyone preparing for their own fights. Who would spare their time for one little boy, except…

Tommy excused himself and ran off without telling his brothers where he would head off to.

After collecting the arrows stabbed on the concrete ground, Wilbur walked up to Techno who remained seated with his head resting on his fist, elbow supported by the handles of his chair.

“Are you proud of me Techno?” Wilbur asked eagerly.

“Yes, I am very proud of you Wilbur.” Techno praised in a monotone, but even with the lack of emotion behind it, it still made Will’s day to hear it coming out directly from the reigning champion of pvp.

“But I must add,” Techno continued. “You do fight cowardly. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing since you know your strengths and weaknesses as well as your components. So in that aspect, I will commend you for your skills, but you could use some body training from time to time. I feel like if you were to put in the effort into fighting, you would probably have the same fighting style as Phil’s.”

“Mmm, but I don’t like to fight. Not really my thing. I’ll just stick to what I enjoy, though I must admit, Tommy’s not half bad.”

“I would’ve liked to see what he was capable of if you stopped running away, Will.”

The two chuckled and went back inside, minding their own business for the rest of the day. However, for Tommy, the day has just begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11:46PM
> 
> January 1st, hell yeah! I've made it. Happy New Years everyone, hope you all had a great one!
> 
> Comments are appreciated, let me know what you think might happen in the long run. Any ideas?


	10. Training to become a man

Running down with a mixture of frustration and excitement, Tommy returned to the inn where Dream claimed that he was staying in. He busted the door down and went up to the receptionist who was in shock. 

Huffing through every breath, he managed to ask which room Dream stayed in. Room 14. He rushed upstairs, hastily thanking the receptionist before rattling the front door of Dream's resting place.

"Ay yo Big D, you in there?"

After a few more knocks, rapid footsteps could be heard behind the door, growing louder and louder until the door swung open, nearly hitting Tommy in the face.

"Who the he… Tommy? What? Wait, um… Why are you…? Anyways, come on in." Dream stuttered, fully opening the door to let the child walk past him.

Although Dream did extend the offer of helping Tommy but he didn’t expect him to come so soon. He was unprepared. Trying to compose himself in front of his guest. Fumbling through small cupboards to see if he could scavenge any snacks, but unsurprisingly, there was nothing. He sat opposite to Tommy with a small wooden table acting as a borderline. The room wasn’t big, but it was comfortable enough for one person to stay for a short period.

“Hey Dream boi, let’s get down to business.” Tommy smiled, leaning his elbows on the table with his fingers interlocked.

“Alright. Off topic, I don’t have anything to offer you since I really only stay here to rest, otherwise I’m out most of the time.”

“Oh yeah, now that you mention it you really have nothing here. So this is where a poor man lives.” Realising he too was straying off topic, he interrupted himself. “I want to ask you for a favour.”

“Go on.” Dream leaned back on his chair with his body leaned back, tilted to the right. His index finger resting against the smile of his mask.

“You see, I want to participate in the competitive fight, not the lame stick fight competition.”

“Ok… I don’t see why you don’t just go ahead and sign up. You seem perfectly capable to compete in it.”

“Exactly! I’m very capable, and very strong. Have you seen my guns? Oh, they’re so massive!” He unnecessarily pulled his short sleeves up to flex on the green man with pride. “Anyways, my dad said that I had to beat my brother to join, and it’s not even the one I want. He said I have to win the lame one to become a real man so I can join the big leagues.”

“Your brother? Technoblade?”

“No, I have another brother named Wilbur. He’s like, much worse at fighting but oh my god, he’s so annoying. He keeps running away and trying to throw me off.”

“Hm… Interesting. So I presume from what you’re telling me is that you want me to train you?”

“Yup!”

Dream snickered. “You realise that help doesn’t go one way, Tommy. I was thinking more along the lines of helping you with any problems you have which involves beating other people up or just listening to you complaining about your life. You see, you’re essentially going to take up my time and I’m not going to give it to you for free.”

“Oh… I was hoping you could just do it since you’re my friend.”

“Of course you’re my friend Tommy, it’s just that I’m going to teach you skills and usually others would charge you by the hours. I’m also positive you came to me because it’s near tournament time and the people willing to teach you are scarce. I’m willing, but you gotta cut me some slack. Give me something in return.”

“This isn’t much but I could owe you a favour in return. I’ll be your personal assassin if you ever need me. Actually, not an assassin because I would end up getting killed by Phil but you get the gist.”

“So you’re saying you’ll assist me if I need anything from you?”

“Basically.”

Dream gave it a thought as he observed the child who was gleaming in excitement. It would be hard to refuse and the offer could come in handy one day. The training could go either way, easy or hard, but hopefully it would be worth the favour.

“Ok.” Dream said nonchalantly, getting up from his seat. “We start now, come on.”

Dream led the child to a few stores along the way to treat him to some snacks and drinks. It was the least he could do to redeem himself from the poor hospitality. As they walked, Tommy elaborated on the fight he had with Wilbur to give Dream more insight on the stranger’s fighting style. 

They came onto a grassy plain on the outskirts of town. Usually, competitors would train in practice rings that were set up to get used to the limited space they were given so they could strategise around it, but Tommy’s case was different. He was going to fight Wilbur in an open area where there will probably not have a strict perimeter where they had to stay within. This gave Wilbur the advantage of freedom, but Dream was certain he could use that to their advantage as well.

In order for their training session to be effective, Dream needed to understand Tommy’s strengths and weaknesses, and how he can use whatever skills he has and can acquire in the next few days against Wilbur.

“So Tommy, which weapons do you prefer using?” Dream asked, sorting through his inventory as he waited for the young one to answer.

“Stick.”

“Wha- huh? I meant the weapon yo-”

“Stick.” Dream was taken aback with the response. This was going to be a lot more painful than he thought.

Dream tested him using all the weapons he had at hand. He was pretty good at the normal bow. Some would miss, but the majority would hit the dummy target that Dream had brought along. He was a bit slow on the crossbow when reloading which would prove to be difficult against Will so Dream decided against teaching him how to handle one properly. Tommy was average in both sword and axe skills. Dream was going to teach Tommy axe as he specialised fighting with an axe, but seeing how Tommy dual wields his sticks, he turned to teaching him with dual swords instead. Neither Tommy nor Dream preferred fighting with a fishing rod, but Dream had one trick up his sleeve to deal against Wilbur so he would have to guide Tommy through at least the basics of handling one. Using a shield wasn't too much of a problem due to Tommy having a good grasp on it already.

After picking out the suitable instruments for war, it was time to assess the child’s abilities in a battle. Tommy used one sword for the time being because it felt awkward to wield two so suddenly. The way Tommy charged head on was very predictable, almost cute to Dream seeing how he was dealing with a baby amateur. It was like watching a toddler take its first steps.

“When running, you’re wasting too much unnecessary arm movement. Bend your legs more and lower your body, but please don’t Naruto run on me. Run in a zigzag path and change it up every now and then. By running in a low position, it allows you to gain more power when you jump to avoid an attack or dodge. Speaking of attacks, your hits are too weak when it comes into impact with my shield. Even if the opponent is shielded, but you can still push them back onto the ground if you’re lucky. To do that, use rotation to gain momentum. Just try not to get dizzy in the process. When you swing your sword, keep it steady. If it’s on a weird angle, the air resistance will slow it down and you don’t want that.”

“Dream?”

“Yes Tommy?”

“Do I have to remember all of this? I feel like you’re just rambling like an old man. I literally cannot process any of it.” Tommy complained in a breathy, exhausted tone. He had never had a proper mentor who pointed out all his faults and ways he could improve. Getting hit by everything all at once was quite a lot. Although Techno would teach him every now and then, his brother was never serious and only pointed out how bad his stance was instead of actually correcting him with reasons behind it.

“You wanted to defeat Wilbur right?”

“I do, but isn’t this just too excessive? I want the meat Dream, not the lamb sauce.”

“That does not make any sense, you might want to work on your English while you’re at it. Look, I need you to get a hold of the basics first as well as some tricks ok? Not only am I going to show you how to deal with your brother, I’m also teaching you how to be a better fighter. Now quit your whining and swing the sword 50 times. I want it to cut the air as cleanly as possible.”

“UGH! Can’t you just give me the secret formula?” He groaned.

“Next we’re going to work with your bow. You better get ready for a whole lecture and shoot this dummy 50 times at different positions.”

“Dream!” He whined.

“Seeing how you have so much energy, might as well help you crack a few bones. Your body seems to need flexibility to be agile.” It was almost as if Tommy could see the sadistic smile behind Dream’s mask. 

By the time they were done for the day, Tommy’s hands were covered in blisters. He asked for healing potions from Dream but instead, he was told that if he left it as it was and kept training, his hands would get more rough and become stronger. Dream only convinced Tommy after saying that he would become a man by pogging through the pain.

When he returned home, Philza was already back helping Wilbur with dinner. He was given a couple of weird looks which was fair considering he was out for a long time with his clothes stained with dirt and sweat. It seems like he was going to have to change every day while training with Dream. Oh the trouble of choosing which red and white shirt he was going to have to wear. It was not like his wardrobe was filled with all his shirts looking identical, no, there was one with blue… with still the same design. A white shirt with red (or blue) coming up from his sleeves to his shoulders and around the collar.

At the dinner table, Techno didn’t even question Tommy’s ragged appearance. It was quite obvious what the child was doing in his spare time. Tommy didn’t even speak, just occasionally gave Wilbur the glare and then the smirk when he couldn’t keep his poker face. Wilbur had to restrain himself from laughing, Phil too. Phil’s heart was basically melting at how cute his children were silently reacting to Tommy’s situation.

The next morning, the child was very eager to set off to meet up with his sensei. Packing his own lunch like a big boy and gathering his weapons. Just before leaving, he figured he should tell someone where he will go for the rest of the day because he didn’t want them to send out a search party to find him. Search party as in Philza Minecraft himself. The only person who was going to be awake this early was probably Techno so he paid him a quick visit before heading off.

Just before knocking, he heard a yelp from behind the door and busted the door open. Techno was at his desk with his gloved hand held high, fingers spread, body hunched down. His body clearly showed that he was in pain.

“Oh uh… Techno? I feel like I’m barging in on something here.”

“Ya think?” He barely managed to squeeze that through his gritted teeth. After having to wait for the pain to subside, he swung his arm around the top rail of the chair to rest his chin on his shoulders. “What do you want?”

“Women.”

“Ok, let me rephrase it. Why did you come into my room besides hearing me do a very manly war cry.”

“You mean a scream.”

“War cry.”

“No no, I definitely heard a high pitched scream.”

“A. Manly. War. Cry.”

Tommy let out his hyena laugh that he was trying to suppress. Wiping his tears away, he informed Techno that he was going out to train until dust the next few days until the rematch with Will.

“You really think you can beat him?”

“I know I can, have some faith in me.”

“I don’t know about that. Look at you, you’re basically a stick compared to Wilbur… Wait, you’re both sticks. My bad, I take it back. No need to roll your eyes at me, go off and have fun.”

Just as Tommy was about to leave, he turned around to ask something he had nearly forgotten.

“Seriously though, what was that scream?”

“I just bumped my hand onto the table and my head while I was at it. I’m fine, just go and do whatever you’re going to do. I’ll tell Phil if he asks.”

“Thanks man. Take care.” Tommy ran out of the room without shutting the door. The pain of having to get up to close it. It was always the child’s special talent to ruin a nice moment, no one can have nice moments when he’s around.

As Techno got up to close the door, he thought to himself. It was unusual for his younger brother to say anything remotely kind to make him seem like he actually cared about another’s well being. If anyone who was going to “take care”, it was going to be Tommy. Techno was going to enjoy seeing the child actually be quiet when he comes home up until the tournament. The house was in need for some peace.

That day, Dream taught Tommy how to dual wield. It took quite a while to get a hang of it but Tommy was making astounding progress for someone who had very little experience in actual combat. It was also crucial to be able to switch between his shield and sword. Dual wielding basically means that Tommy would be on the offense with no way to defend himself. If Wilbur decides to be a moron and resorts to his trickery, Tommy would need to switch to shield quickly before he gets knocked onto the ground. The downside to Wilbur’s tactics was the reduction in power that was struck onto the opponent due to having to adapt and take action immediately after he thinks of a move. 

Dream taught Tommy a few ways to get around WIlbur’s maneuvre around the battlefield as well as a few strategies that would prove to be very useful. One of which required the switch from bow to fishing rod, the delicate placing of arrows and extremely good timing. Patience is key.

The last day of training was just improving his stance, techniques, and trying to remember most of the tactics which Dream had come up with. It was going to be the day of reckoning, a new dawn, a new beginning to the rise of the almighty Tommyinnit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2:36AM
> 
> Look, I know what you're going to say. Let me explain for my absence... Holidays. I can't help it ok? Holidays made me very lazy!
> 
> Next chapter's going to be more interesting so please bare with me. I know this wasn't enough to make up for the month long disappearance HANYA
> 
> I'm going to bed and never waking up. Night :')


	11. Tommy vs Wilbur

Today was the day Tommy was going to call Wilbur in for a rematch. It would’ve been enough if he had a duel in the afternoon and got it over and done with, but he wanted to bring his mentor over to watch the fight. Show off the training he had suffered for the past 3 days. When Tommy extended an invitation to Dream, he had originally refused it. With a bit of persuasion, the curiosity got the best of him and it wouldn’t hurt to meet the well known family. After all, it probably wasn’t every day someone got to pay them a visit seeing how they come to the town instead.

That morning, all Tommy could do was walk around in circles eagerly around the living room. The thought of beating Wilbur, participating in the tournament, and Dream coming could basically send his excitement through the roof if that was possible. Philza was chuckling in the background, sipping tea on the sofa. He had agreed to not go down to town to watch his children duel, it had also piqued his interest how much Tommy had improved, not that he knew how good Tommy was at fighting in the first place. Techno sat next to Phil reading his book. It had been a while since anyone has seen him wear his glasses, he seldom ever wore it. It oddly suited him. Wilbur sat further away beside the dining table strumming his guitar and humming to his own tune.

“Will?” Techno called out, eyes still glued to the pages.

“Yes darling?” The brunette cooed, making Phil giggle.

“It sounds nice but it’s making me sleepy, so could you stop that?”

“What does me playing have anything to do with you if you find it nice? Someone here doesn’t appreciate true music.”

“Hm… I suppose that was a bit rude of me, I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.” Techno looked up from his book, locking his eyes with Will’s, smirking sarcastically at him. “How about playing strumming vigorously while screaming? Maybe that can wake me up from your boorish tunes.”

Wilbur had gotten up from his seat to immigrate next to Phil, half sitting on the arm of the couch.

“Phil, will you have the honour of singing a duet with me? It’s called ‘And we Drink too many Shots’. I think that nerd over there will very much like it. So how ‘bout it?”

“Ahaha… I don’t really want to...” Phil said reluctantly, scooching away from the madman but was pulled back with Wilbur’s arm around his shoulders.

“Come on Phil! And we drink too many shots...”

Sighing heavily, Phil joined in in a monotone voice, singing the actual lyrics, whereas Wilbur had a little bit of fun on his own.

“And we drink toO many shots, and we drink too many shots, AND WE DRINK TOO MANY SHOTS, AND TECHNO WE DRINK TOO MANY SHOTS!”

They went on for quite a while. With Wilbur strumming and ear raping the heck out of everyone, Phil singing like he wants to end his life, and Tommy complaining about the noise (sometimes joining in), Techno could finally enjoy his book in peace. Peace of not dozing off. How he loved this family on crack.

Amidst the chaos, they heard a knock on the door. Since the place was so big, it was hard to hear anything from the front door so they somehow managed to amplify the noise so that it could be heard in every public room.

Tommy squealed in delight, rushing over to the front door to see Dream. Wilbur and Philza quickly followed behind to meet the stranger. Dream gave them a little wave and handed each a small gift. A diamond for each. They let him in and he was astounded by how big it was for four people residing in it. It was much too spacious, but it was nice in its own way.

Tommy and Wilbur left to banter with each other, leaving Phil alone with Dream as they toured around the first floor.

“Pleasure to finally meet you. So, you’ve been teaching Tommy?” Phil asked.

“Yeah, he’s actually not bad for an amateur. He’s just a bit stiff when moving around, but maybe that’s because I’m too agile. I don’t ever do this so I mean, I guess it was an experience.”

“I hope he didn’t give you too much of a problem, I know how he can be.”

“Oh god, I know what you mean. At one point, I was seriously considering whether I should just stop training him, he won’t stop complaining. I swear my ears were about to bleed at one point, but aside from that, it was pretty good.”

“I’m happy to hear it. I’ll introduce you to our family and then you can tell us a bit of yourself.”

They all gathered around the couch where Techno had not yet moved. Truthfully, he was uninterested with everything happening around him. He wasn’t very keen with having another person’s presence in the household but it wasn’t like it was a forbidden place for others to come. 

Philza gave Dream a cup of tea before starting the introduction.

“So hello, my name is Philza and I basically look after everyone here. I only really gather resources here and there, and help out the townspeople.”

“Hey there, the name’s Wilbur. I like guitars. Would you like me to play a song for you? Too late. AND I DRINK TOO MANY SHOTS! Thank you for chiming in on my concert.” Just before Tommy could introduce himself, Will continued. “You don’t need to hear from this racoon, I’m sure you know full well who he is.”

Wilbur got an earful of Tommy’s rant which he had to lean away so that his eardrums don’t explode from the frequency.

Techno closed his book and put it down respectfully on the table, as well as his spectacles.

“Hullo~ I’m Technoblade.”

The rest was waiting for something more but nothing else came out of his mouth.

“Anything else you want to say?” Phil asked.

“Well, I’m kind of good at pvp.”

“Kind of is an understatement or so I’ve heard.” Dream said. Instead of waiting for Technoblade to add any more, which he was positive the man wasn’t, he introduced himself instead. “Hi! My name is Dream and I’ve been training Tommy for the past 3 days. He’s a bit hard to deal with but honestly, not too bad of a fighter. I’m sure he will do well in the festival.”

“So where are you from and what do you do?” Wilbur asked before Tommy could interject.

“I’m just from a small village in the west. I haven’t been back in several years since I've been wandering a lot. You could call me an adventurer.”

“Oh, so you’re like our Techno.”

“So you’re homeless.” Techno cut in. “I at least have somewhere to return to.”

Dream blushed behind his mask. It was embarrassing to have it put it that way and he wasn’t going to back down.

“I do have a house, it’s just very, very far from here.”

“Do you sleep outside, Dream?”

“I have a house.”

“This nerd doesn’t even have a house!”

“I have a house!”

“Ok man, whatever you say.”

“I HAVE A HOUSE! It’s very big, it’s ginormous, colossal even.”

Dream was very worked up. Usually he always had a calm facade, but just by listening to the way Technoblade spoke, it felt he was making fun of him as sarcastically as possible. He wasn’t used to that kind of demeanor.

To ease the odd tension between the two, Phil decided it was time for the duel to commence. He led Dream and Technoblade to the balcony on the floor above before taking the other two down to the court so he could referee.

Both men leaned on the rail of the balcony, discussing the probability of who would emerge as victor. It was obvious that Dream would side with Tommy. Techno on the other hand would have said Wilbur without hesitation but he felt like the absence of the child for the past few days may cause the outcome of today's match to be different from last time.

"Ready?" Phil called with his arms up.

"You're so going down Wilbur." He shook his arms to get rid of his excitement and any lingering nervous feeling he had. After all, Techno and Dream were both watching. He wanted to prove himself to be worthy of a warrior.

"I'd like to see you try Tommyinnit." Wilbur teased. He was not a fool to completely underestimate someone filled with determination. However, he didn't feel it in him to take it seriously since there was nothing beneficial to whether he won or not.

As soon as Phil's arm dropped, Wilbur unexpectedly charged forward down low to sweep his sword across Tommy. It barely gave Tommy enough time to put up his shield. Even though he blocked it, the hit caused him to stumble backwards. Using Tommy's off balance to Wilbur's advantage, he swept the child's foot, successfully pinning Tommy to the ground with a sword by the neck.

"That's enough, Wilbur has one point." Phil raised his left hand to show who the victor of that match was.

Dream looked down thoughtfully. Wilbur's action had too caught him off guard. He had considered the possibility but he felt that it was highly unlikely for Wilbur to go on the offense, at least at the very start.

"Well that was quick." Techno smiled behind his palms.

"I've heard Wilbur doesn't fight a lot." Dream said.

"You're right, he doesn't. However, it did used to train with Phil, occasionally with me as well. We kind of forced him because I believe everyone should be well versed in fighting to be able to defend themselves."

Another match started almost immediately after.

Wilbur charged in the same as before, but instead of using a shield, Tommy switched to bow and arrows. If he couldn't stand steady last round, it was not likely this round either. He didn't want to give Wilbur a free point. The shots fired, cutting Wilbur off from close combat, making him retreat. Tommy shot several arrows upwards, causing the other to look up. By the time he looked back down again, a single arrow came hurling at him, giving him little to no time to react. It successfully landed right under his left shoulder. Distracted by the pain, he failed to notice an arm swinging to his neck, knocking him over.

"Tommy's point." Phil raised his right arm this time.

"Will, you ok?" Tommy held out a hand to help his brother up which the other gladly took.

"Yeah I'm fine, let's continue. It wasn't deep." Wilbur smiled. "Not bad, man."

Tommy blushed shyly at his brother's compliment.

"Of course, that's because I'm very powerful."

"Resume your positions." Phil instructed.

In this round, Tommy started with a shield and a sword, but quickly changed to dual wielding when he saw Wilbur running away from him. Tommy was able to chase him for a longer period of time as he had conserved energy from the previous round. He followed Wilbur close enough that when the older turned corners, he boosted himself in front. This left Wilbur with no choice but to go on the defensive. Tommy was decent enough with fighting with two swords to remain in offense. Wilbur knew he couldn't keep holding off the hits, he shoved the shield forward, and swung his legs around to kick Tommy. Tommy's swords were caught by the rotation, leaving his body defenseless. Quickly, he switched to shield to block the kick. Wilbur swung the other way immediately, hoping to stab Tommy's side. Unfortunately, Tommy was quick to switch back to two swords and knocked it out of his brother's hands. With two swords crossed against Wilbur's neck, the match concluded with Tommy again, as the winner.

"Huh, dual wielding. I don't see that often. Is that what you specialise in?" Techno asked, intrigued.

"Not at all. I know some techniques here and there. I just thought Tommy suited that kind of fighting style and I don't think my intuition is wrong. He's pretty good. What about you? What do you specialise in?"

"You could say I'm an all rounder, but if I had to choose, I would say sword fighting."

"Really? It's such a common weapon, I would have thought… I don't know, something a bit more interesting."

"Well, there's no need to wield a fancy weapon when you're good enough to beat them with what you got. What, do you have an exotic weapon you would like to share with the class?"

Dream scoffed with a smile. Instead of backing down or going against that remark, he played along inside.

"I wanted to be humble but you left me with no choice. I own the legendary Excalibur. Very nice."

The fourth round commenced. If Tommy could win this, he would be over the moon, if not, he would be in a bad spot. He didn't have as much stamina as Wilbur nor concentration.

As soon as Tommy saw Wilbur take a step towards him, he put his shield up. It was always the same when Wilbur would attack first. Straightforward. He waited for a few seconds and nothing happened, but as soon as he lowered his shield, he saw a cocky smile from Wilbur before dust filled his view. The particles got into his eyes, making it not only hard to see but it also stung a lot. Wilbur probably kept dirt with him just before the match started. Though dirty, there were no rules against his actions. Cursing, Tommy put up a shield to protect himself from any attack with his eyes still close and sure enough, he received a kick in the front. Like a water current itself Will gracefully spun behind him to kick his opponent down to the ground. Instead of falling face first, Tommy managed to front roll out of the way. Blinking the tears along with the dust away, a blurry silhouette was all he could see in that split second, moving with only his reflexes, he crouched to avoid it. Surely enough, Wilbur had thrusted his sword at him, but at least managed to land another kick, leaving the boy on the ground again. Just as he was about to swing his sword close to Tommy’s neck to end it, a leg knocked Wilbur off balance. Rubbing his eyes with his forearm, Tommy regained his focus and started to shoot his opponent. As expected, none of his shots hit. He was too out of it. After shooting with rapid succession, Tommy took out his fishing rod and swung it to the right. Wilbur was confused as he was running to the left, but what he didn’t know was the slithering snake that was fast approaching in stealth. The fishing line followed the trail of arrows that were paved out beforehand, turning a corner to quickly grab hold of the brunette’s ankle. As soon as it was properly wrapped around, Tommy yanked the line with all his might, causing Wilbur to lose balance and fall facepalm onto the concrete beneath him. Tommy threw his shield towards his opponent, laid out on the ground like a snacc. This was so he could buy some time as he ran towards the body. The round was over as soon as Tommy’s wooden sword touched Wilbur’s neck.

“Wilbur one, Tommy three. The victor of today’s match is Tommy.” Phil announced.

A war cry bursted from the child, he was no longer able to contain his emotions. A rush of euphoria washed over his body. The sheer raw volume made Techno from the second storey wince at the piercing screams the little Racooninnit produced.

“EAT MY DUST WILBUR, LITERALLY!” Tommy laughed triumphantly as he made his way over to help his brother up.

“Not gonna lie Tommy, the dust tastes pretty good. Like the ashes of Phil’s mistress.” Wilbur coughed as he was pulled upright. He rightfully earned a slap in the back from Philza.

“That is uncalled for, I don’t even have a wife.” Phil sighed.

“Not for long you won’t big P. Not for long, all the girls will swim around me and you can choose a few for your liking. I’m so generous.” Tommy boasted.

Brushing the dust off, Wilbur gave Tommy’s hair a rough ruffle.

“I’m proud of you Tommy.”

Tommy’s eyes shot up. He pursed his lips together and he could feel tears about to well up, but he felt so overwhelmed in the moment that the tears didn’t register, which he was very grateful for. He fiddled his thumb before mumbling a small ‘thank you’ under his breath with his head down. How he wanted to hide in a hole in that moment.

Dream came running out, offering a strong pat on the back and a firm handshake to Wilbur. Both had fought very well and he was glad that his efforts poured into Tommy paid off. As well as the torture. He casually swung his arm around Tommy’s neck, to make the child uncomfortable. During Tommy’s protest and squirms, he felt a light pat on his head. It was Techno.

“Well done.”

It wasn’t much, but two simple words made his heart race and cheeks redden. It was the first time he had ever received a compliment from his eldest brother when it came to combat. The feeling of happiness was too overwhelming for him, hence he let out another cry which shattered everybody’s eardrums.

This was a day he was never going to forget. He was going to frame it, put it in a special treasure chest inside his mind. He was not going to let his family hear the end of his victory for the next few weeks, but before that, he had a tournament to win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 12:23AM
> 
> Holy heck, this took me a while but it was very fun to write, especially the interaction between Techno and Dream. Will they be friends or enemies? Find out in the next 900 episodes of... Dragon Ball Z. Will the spirit bomb load first or will Philza Minecraft finally find his wife? Stay tuned for more cracked head material.
> 
> Hope you all have a swell night!


End file.
